One of These Things
by QuickFire4027
Summary: Mia Dawson had enough to deal with before she started turning into a werewolf, falling for Jacob and Luke, befriending vampires and attracting the Volturi. Which one of these things is not like the others? Set between Eclipse and Breaking Dawn.
1. Fever

DISCLAIMER: I am not Stephenie Meyer. I do not own anything you recognize.

Chapter One: Fever

Pretty much everyone in La Push had figured it out. The Council of Elders denied it, of course, but the Quileute legends were the first stories told to kids, and there were too many coincidences. I lived clear on the other side of the rez, but we'd heard, too; whispers about Sam, the tribe's outsider, suddenly being popular, even revered, by a bunch of the guys. Those guys having sudden growth spurts. Those guys disappearing for days at a time. One of them got checked into the hospital with fatal injuries and walked out the next day without so much as a bruise.

It wasn't hard to jump to the conclusion.

"Did you hear?" Alia whispered in my ear on the way to homeroom. "Collin joined them. Collin. He's 13."

"That was over a week ago," Sheyenne corrected. "God, Ali, keep up."

"Play nice, girls," I interjected absentmindedly. I had a headache and didn't really feel like dealing with the bickering.

"Yeah," said a deep voice behind me. "Play nice or the werewolves might get you."

Sheyenne and Alia groaned, I smiled and turned around to hug Logan. He took an extra second in the hug to breathe in the smell of my hair, as usual, then took my hand and the four of us continued walking.

"Like you don't believe the stories," Sheyenne mocked. "Everyone knows what's happening."

"Do they? Because it sure sounds like a bunch of bedtime stories to me."

"There are, like, a lot of them now," Alia said. "That's a pack, Logan."

"A pack of guys who are confused, gullible, and probably smoking more than they should be. What's wrong, Mia?"

I'd been walking progressively slower, and stopped. I was leaning heavily on Logan, but couldn't seem to get my balance.

"Not sure." Ok, out of breath, too. "I'm dizzy. I mean, I'm fine."

I tried to walk again and stumbled over my own feet. Logan caught me.

"No lying, Mia," he chided gently, a semi-pointed reminder about our talk the previous night. We'd agreed that we needed to be more honest with each other if our relationship was going to go any further. It hadn't been a fun conversation.

"I'm not lying," I protested as my vision started blurring. "I'm not."

_________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________

I woke up feeling like ten thousand tiny men were building campfires just under my skin.

I was at home. My room. I threw the covers off and jumped to my feet, intending to go downstairs and stick my head in the freezer, but the dizziness returned with a vengeance and I hit the floor before I'd even made it to the doorframe. The resultant thud brought Logan and my younger sister, Abby, running up the stairs. I managed to convince them that I was fine, that I'd just gotten up too fast. Logan put a hand to my forehead and looked concerned, but I promised that it was just a twenty-four hour bug, assured him that I wouldn't go to school tomorrow, and tried to send him home.

"Fine, fine, I'm going, I'm going," he said, holding his hands up in mock surrender as Abby pushed him towards the door by the small of his back.

"You should go," Abby insisted. She grabbed his shirt sleeve and tugged him down until his ear was at her level. "Mia's sick. Me 'n Bailey's gonna take care of her."

I watched the exchange continue from the couch. Logan was great with her, and with Bailey, our brother, but I sometimes worried that they didn't exactly know what role he played in their lives. Things were a little…complicated for us.

Two years ago, our parents and older brother, Mark, had gone missing out at sea. Their boat had wrecked itself on the shore the week after, but their bodies were never found. I was fourteen then, and the Child Protective Services had come in, intending to put us in foster homes, but I'd fought tooth and nail until some of the elders from the rez stepped in. Somehow, the whole thing had been swept under the carpet, and now it was just me, sixteen, starting my senior year in high school, with Bailey, nine and proud to be the best player on his rec league soccer team, and Abby, five and bossy.

I'd been a complete mess when I met Logan a little over a year ago, but he showed up after school one day and things just...clicked. He fit our dynamic perfectly. He was Bailey's cool older guy role model; he was Abby's protector from all things terrifying in the closet and under the bed. I don't want to say that he "saved" us; I don't think things were ever really that, _that_ bad, but it was dicey for awhile and he stopped that.

Of course, it helped that he was very attractive and an excellent kisser.

"I know you will," Logan promised, squatting so that he was face-to-face with her. "But can you do me a favor?"

Abby blushed and stuck a finger in her nose. I groaned quietly. We'd been working on the nose thing.

Logan pulled a few little pieces of paper from his pocket and gave them to Abby. "I want to you put these next to all the phones in the house, okay? See how they're green and have the number four on them? If you or Bailey or Mia need me tonight, all you have to do is pick up the phone, press the number four, and press the green button, and I'll be here in just a few minutes, okay?"

Abby crushed the papers to her stomach and removed her finger from her nose to salute. "Okay, Mr. 'Ogan." L's were still a little sketchy for her. They ranked after the nose-picking issue on my scale of importance.

"Thanks, Abby." Abby immediately ran away to perform her task. Logan met my eyes once more, mouthed "I love you," and left, shutting the door behind him.

The thought didn't pop up until the quiet time between Logan's departure and Bailey's somewhat disastrous attempt to make dinner, when I took my temperature.

106 degrees Fahrenheit.

I'm no doctor, but I'd spent enough time nursing Bailey and Abby back to health to know that with a fever of 106, I should have been unconscious in an ice bath somewhere. Sure, my head was pounding and I felt a little overheated, but…

No. It wasn't possible.

I tried to distract myself. TV was ok, but I didn't watch any shows regularly and wasn't up to filling in blank storylines. Reading was a little better, but the words seemed to swim illogically after a few pages. My thoughts kept jumping back to the legends, running down the list of indicators, checking my symptoms against the signs of what was supposed to be a myth.

_________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________

Sometime after dinner, the doorbell rang. As I was still mostly incapacitated—the tiny men had redoubled their efforts—Bailey answered. He yelled a word that I hadn't even known he knew and slammed the door shut. My overprotective big sister instincts kicked in and I sprinted to the door. By the time I got there, he'd opened it again and was apologizing to the half-naked, extremely well developed, extremely attractive man who stood in our doorway.

"I'm sorry," Bailey said. "You look like someone I…someone I used to know."

I knew what he meant. He looked exactly like Mark.

"I'm sorry for startling you," he said. "My name's Sam Uley."

"No way," Bailey breathed. Now it was Sam's turn to look startled. "Sorry," he continued. "It's just…you're _Sam Uley_. My friends are never going to believe this."

Sam kind of laughed, kind of coughed, then shifted his gaze to me. "I take it you're Harmony?"

"Mia," I whispered. My 15-yard run to the door was starting to feel like a Herculean effort. "No one calls me Harmony."

"Do you mind if we talk for a moment, Mia?"

I shook my head, trying to clear it. All I managed to do was rattle my brain a little more. The room spun despite my desperate clutch on the doorframe. Sam gripped my elbow and something electric shot through my body.

"No, you won't talk to me?" he asked.

"No," I breathed. "No, I mean, yes, I'll talk. Listen. Yes. Can we sit down?"

"Of course." He started to guide me to the couch. "Hey, Bailey, can I talk to Mia in private?"

Bailey, in complete awe of his hero, managed to squeak out a "yes" before running away, probably to call everyone he knew.

Sam got me safely to the couch and sat opposite me. I put my head between my knees until the world settled back to normal gravity.

"I'm sure you've heard the stories by now."

"No, gee, I have no idea what you're talking about."

Sam's face went through a mix of emotions before settling on amused. "Well, you're certainly going to fit in."

"Not a chance, Sam."

His face shifted to confusion. "What?"

"Look, I appreciate the offer. But I've got Abby and Bailey, and I'm all they've got."

Understanding with a hint of hope. "So, it's not that you don't believe me."

"I can't believe you." My head was pounding. "If I believe for half a second that there's a way out of this situation, that I might turn into one of your ridiculous wolf people and not have the responsibility that I have now and then that doesn't happen…one loss too many."

Sam's face cleared. "Look, you don't have to believe me right now. Just come down the cliffs tomorrow night, okay? We're having a bonfire. A bunch of people will be there. Bring Abby and Bailey; there'll be a lot of kids for them to play with."

"No promises. Tomorrow's a school night, and Bailey's got a math test the day after."

"Think about it, Mia," Sam said, standing up and heading for the door. "I'm not in the habit of letting people down."

"I know," I said as he opened the door. "Neither am I."


	2. Bonfire

DISCLAIMER: I am not Stephenie Meyer. I do not own anything you recognize.

Chapter Two: Bonfire

"Do we have to?" Abby looked up at me with her guilt-inducing dark brown eyes and pouted.

"No, honey, we don't have to, but we are going to," I said firmly, tugging her sweater down over her head. "It'll just be for a little bit."

"I don't wanna."

I sighed. I was feeling a little better—at least now I could stand up—but wasn't exactly looking forward to the next few hours myself.

"Smile, Abs, or your face will stick like that. Sam said there'd be plenty of kids there for you to play with. Bailey, are you almost ready?"

Bailey came bouncing down the stairs, looking excited. "Sam's going to be there, right? And Jacob and Paul and Jared?"

"I'd assume so. Come on, let's get going." I marshaled my little herd out, taking a last look inside before I closed the door, wondering what on earth I was getting myself into.

_______________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________

I turned off the car and surveyed the scene in front of us. Several smaller bonfires surrounded one large one, and dozens of people wandered between them. There were several gigantic guys playing soccer along the edges of the cliffs, but the picture was definitely dominated by the three giant dogs, er, wolves. Two of them were curled up near a fire, and the other was playing with a couple little kids, who were climbing all over him.

I unbuckled Abby from her car seat. She took my hand, and, after a second, so did Bailey.

"That's a lot of people," Bailey breathed.

"Can I play with the doggies, Mia? Can I can I please?"

Sam was coming over. I squeezed Abby's hand and let go. "Okay. But don't go anywhere, okay? Same for you, Bailey."

Bailey rolled his eyes as he walked away towards a group of kids his age. "Please. I'm not a baby."

"Mia," Sam said, looking pleased and relieved. "I'm glad you came. I want you to meet someone. Jacob!"

The wolf with the kids lifted his head in our direction, gently shook the kids from his back, and stood. He trotted off into the woods, and a few seconds later a shirtless guy emerged. Someone tossed him a shirt as he headed toward us, and he tugged it on, poking his head out with a thousand-watt grin. I sighed: another Mark look-alike. He held out his hand.

"Hi. I'm Jacob Black."

"Mia Dawson," I said, trying not to register the fact that his hand didn't feel hot the way it should when a human touches a werewolf. I didn't want to think about what that meant.

"You go to the other rez school, right?"

"Yeah. We live over on that side."

"Cool. Want to get something to eat?"

I raised an eyebrow. "It's a bit early for a first date, don't you think?"

He looked temporarily confused, then threw his head back and gave a booming laugh. My phone buzzed in my pocket—Logan. I considered weighed my options for a second, then ignored the call and tucked it away.

"Boyfriend jealous of our date?" Jacob asked.

"What can I say? I'm in high demand."

Jacob laughed again and grabbed my hand. "C'mon, let's eat."

"So, are your parents here?" Jacob asked, scanning the sizable crowd.

Cue familiar lump in throat. "Uh, no," I managed. "My parents…my parents died two years ago."

Jacob's face clearly shifted through surprise, pity, anger at himself and embarrassment. "Sorry."

I shook my head. "You didn't know."

"So…do you mind if I ask who you live with?"

"It's just the three of us, actually. Me, Bailey, he's nine and probably getting into trouble as we speak, and our younger sister Abby, who's five. She's the one over there eating mud instead of her dinner."

"It's what I'd do. Sorry, but is that legal? I mean, you definitely don't look eighteen."

"I'm sixteen. But it's the rez, you know? We didn't want to leave, and our neighbors are great. Our parents left us enough money that we're okay for the time being."

"Can't be easy."

"I never said it was."

"Touchy."

"Judgmental."

We passed a few minutes in silence, just watching the fire. Jacob spoke first.

"Where's your head at regarding what Sam told you during his…uh…visit?"

I sighed. "I don't think there's really an answer for that."

"Oh?"

"The entire rez basically knows what's going on with you…guys. But it's something different when I'm being asked to believe it in such a personal way."

"It doesn't matter whether you believe it or not," Jacob said. "No one does at first."

"Yeah, people keep saying that. It sounds like I don't have much of a choice."

"Well…" Jacob stalled, fiddling with something attached to a leather strip around his wrist.

"What's that?" I reached over to touch what he was playing with. His other hand shot out and grabbed my wrist. A bolt of heat shot through my body and Jacob pulled away like he'd been burned. His eyebrows furrowed in an incredibly cute expression. I laughed. "I take it that's not normal, even for a werewolf, huh?"

Jacob looked my face over and relaxed. "No, that's a new one. We're not exactly werewolves, you know—we've got nothing to do with the moon."

"So if you're not, what, _activated_ by the moon, then what is it?" I accepted the mug of apple cider he passed me, noting that he was careful not to touch me again.

"One of your other nightmare animals, of course," he said, a grin creasing his features that made me doubt his sincerity. "You'll hear about it when they tell the legends."

"I don't suppose you've got unicorns out there, do you? Abby wants one for Christmas."

"Unicorns are a no go, sorry, but I could probably get you a talking horse." He took one look at my expression and burst out laughing.

__________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________

Listening to the legends almost brought me to tears. Regardless of whether or not I currently believed them, those stories were part of my heritage, and hearing them told by someone that passionately, with that much invested, was moving. I'm not much of a crier, so it was a big deal.

It was late by the time they were over. Abby was curled up, using a wolf as a pillow. I guess that was reassuring. If I turned into a giant wolf, at least Abby would still like me. Bailey was drifting, too, leaning against a log and keeping his feet warm by the fire.

Jacob was watching me carefully. "You okay?"

I half-smiled. "I don't entirely know how to answer that."

"It's not bad, you know. It's actually pretty cool at times. We get to fight the bad guys. Real-life superheroes."

"I imagine modesty is just one of the many benefits."

"It's the best thing for complimenting our rugged good looks."

I snorted back laughter, starting to like Jacob in spite of myself. It would have been easier if I didn't like any of them, but Jacob just had a way about him that clicked. It didn't take work to be comfortable around him, and we already had a back-and-forth thing going that was making anyone within earshot crack up.

He stood up abruptly and pulled me to my feet. "Time for you to go."

"Why? What's going on?" I was startled by his sudden change in demeanor. He opened his mouth to answer but was cut off by Sam, who stood on a log and called for everyone's attention.

"Friends," Sam began, "it's great to have you all out here. We really enjoy the company, and the cooking, but now it's time for those of you who are still bonafide humans to head home for the night."

There were a couple groans of protest, but mostly everyone was tired already. I took Bailey's hand and lead my blurry-eyed younger brother back to the car while Jacob followed behind me with Abby still sleeping in his arms. He buckled her in, his giant frame looking ridiculous halfway inside my car, then pulled me into a tight hug.

"Try not to worry," he whispered in my ear. "We'll be around. A lot. Sam wants us to get to know you beforehand so we can help you out."

I pulled back a little. "What exactly does 'around a lot' mean?"

"Close your curtains before you change."

"Ew."

"What can I say? We are animals, after all."

"You're horrible."

"That's the nicest thing you've said all night."

"Yeah, well, get out of here before I think of some more nice things to say."

He laughed, tucked my hair behind my ear, and then jogged back towards the fires. All I could really do was stand there for a second, staring after him, wondering why my cheek was burning where he'd touched me if our skin was the same temperature.


	3. Breakup

DISCLAIMER: I am not Stephenie Meyer. I do not own anything you recognize.

Chapter Three: Breakup

I spent most of the next week taking cold showers. I couldn't get my temperature down for the life of me, and it kind of freaked me out that I was getting used to it.

When I wasn't in school, I was with someone from the pack. As soon as Bailey and Abby got home from school, we'd head over to Sam's house, where he lived with his fiancée, Emily. She was beautiful despite the scars Sam had left and got along with Bailey and Abby immediately. They'd stay with her and I'd spend time with one of the guys, usually Jake, Seth, or Embry. Paul still kind of freaked me out—he was huge and didn't control himself very well—and Leah was, well, a bitch, although it was justified. Honestly, learning about the internal life of the pack was better than any soap opera. This imprinting thing just seemed to complicate everyone's lives, especially with the Sam/Emily/Leah thing and the fact that Quil's imprint wasn't three years old yet.

Even when I wasn't actively with them, there was always someone 'around,' as Jake had promised. There was always someone running a patrol around our house at night, and more than once I caught a glimpse of something furry out of the corner of my eye during gym.

It was a waiting game. The guys had bets placed on when I'd change. I was just praying that it didn't happen during school—I'd been distant enough the past few days, I didn't need news of my werewolfship to circulate any quicker than it would already.

________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________

Logan met me just outside the door after school, as usual, and took my hand as we walked to my car, which was also usual, but he was unusually quiet. His hand felt cold in my 104-average palm. My mind was elsewhere; Abby and Bailey had some sort of bug and we'd been up all night, me trying to comfort them as they puked their tiny guts out. I opened my door, tossed my backpack across to the passenger seat, and turned to say goodbye, but instead he caught me in his arms and kissed me with such force that I had to lean against my car to keep from falling down.

He finally let me go but kept me pinned between the car and his body. In some part of my mind, I was nervous, but the rest of my mind was focused on breathing.

He looked in my eyes, running his thumb over my cheek. He kissed me again, softly this time.

"I'll miss you," he whispered.

"Where…where am I going?" I managed, still trying to catch my breath.

He took a few steps back. "You're not mine anymore."

"What? I—Logan, I don't know what you mean."

"Yes, you do. We both know what's happening. You're spending all your time with Jacob and the other guys from the other side of the rez, you're lying to me when I ask what you're doing, and you're not answering my calls."

"Logan, it's not what you think, I can't really explain, but—there's no one else, I swear, I'm yours."

He laughed, reached out, took my hand. "Mia, I know you wouldn't do that; that's not what I mean. I mean…you've been sick a lot. Headaches, throwing up. You're reading the old Quileute legends. Even right now, your hand is probably giving mine a second-degree burn."

I instinctively tried to pull my hand away, but he tightened his grip. "I know you're not allowed to tell me, and I know you hate lying to me. I love you, Mia, and I'd keep up the pretense if I thought it was best for you, but it's not. You've got a whole new life coming at you, and keeping your human boyfriend happy but out of the loop isn't a burden you should have to deal with." He kissed me on the forehead and let go of my hand. "I'll wait, for a while. Maybe things will settle down and you'll be able to come back to me, but until then…I'll miss you."

I stood there, stunned, watching him walk away.

_________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________

I was in full out mope when Jacob rang the doorbell later that night. He pushed past me into the house as soon as I opened the door, snatching the ice cream from my hand on his way to collapse on the couch.

"Are you seriously watching this?" he called. "Chick flicks, Mia? I didn't think you were the type."

"Leave me alone," I grumbled, curling up in a ball on a seat next to the couch.

He muted the TV and sat up, looking at me with genuine concern. "Whoa, what's with the attitude? What happened?"

"Logan broke up with me. Please give back my ice cream."

Jacob stared for a second, then laughed out loud. "You're kidding, right? You're crying because that idiot broke up with you?"

"He's not an idiot!" I protested.

"Mmm, probably true. You've been the idiot lately."

"Gee, thanks. Tell me something I don't know."

"You're supposed to argue with me, not agree. You're not an idiot."

"Yes, I am. I ruined my relationship with Logan, and for what? The promise that I might one day join the pack of dogs that runs around La Push at night, battling monsters? Not to mention what I'm doing to Abby and Bailey."

"That's true," Jacob interrupted. "You are a pretty crappy replacement mom."

Sudden anger cut into my self-pity and loathing.

"Excuse me?"

"Oh, don't pretend you don't know what I'm talking about. You're the only family they've got and you're basically a nutcase." He smiled a wolfy smile.

"Please stop talking," I said quietly. My face was starting to flush with the effort of staying calm. I knew what he was doing. There was a tiny voice in my head screaming at me to calm down, that Jake was just trying to make me angry so I'd change, that he didn't mean what he was saying, but the thing was, _I_ meant what he was saying. Those were my words coming out of his mouth.

"Please—please stop _talking_?" Jacob gawked at me. "How about, 'Mia, please stop being an idiot,' or 'Mia, stop being a coward,' or 'Mia,--'"

I'd had enough. The flush that had started in my face plummeted to the pit of my stomach and started to grow. Heat was spreading through my body, unbearable heat. I raised a hand in front of my face and my fingers were shaking—more than shaking, I was moving so fast that my edges were blurring. I shifted my gaze to Jacob, who gave me a grin and exploded out of his skin. A giant wolf now stood in his place.

Voices were in my head then, voices I recognized but couldn't place. Jacob's cut in, clearly coming from the wolf standing a few feet in front of me but sounding inside my head.

_Don't fight it, Mia. You can't stop it. It'll hurt worse if you fight. _

I fought. I fought as long as I could, but at some point in time it stopped mattering if I fought and the only thing that mattered was that it _hurt. _Something hit me, a door opened, and I vaguely realized that I was outside, being carried through the woods. Other voices started showing up in my head, some that were familiar, some that weren't. Jacob was there in a big way, trying to help.

It stopped.


	4. New

DISCLAIMER: I am not Stephenie Meyer. I do not own anything you recognize.

Chapter 4: New

I opened my eyes and noticed several things in fast succession.

First was that I was surrounded by wolves. Giant wolves.

Second was that I was a wolf. A giant wolf. Not nearly as giant as most of the ones around me, but close.

Third was that the wolf standing directly in front of me, a russet-brown creature that dwarfed the average bear, was smiling.

I tried to speak, which of course didn't work. Something squeaky and ridiculous emerged from my…muzzle, which drew several barking laughs from around me. My head was immediately crowded with thoughts—some individual, some plural, several inappropriate, a few rude, and one that wasn't so much a thought as a presence, watching everyone else argue with a fatherly mix of amusement and annoyance.

_Okay, okay_, interrupted the presence. It automatically paired perfectly with the monstrous black wolf standing to the russet one's left. The other thoughts vanished, to be replaced with a single, joint consciousness. _Mia? Do you know where you are?_

I didn't know how to use the wolf communication.

More barky laughter.

_You don't have to know how to do it_, Blackie informed me. _It just happens. _

I just know how to do it?

_Yes. _

_Oh. Okay. I guess I'm in a clearing in the woods. La Push? Uh, the ocean's…_I sniffed, my ears pricking up. Everything was clearer. Senses I hadn't know I was missing were kicking in, telling me things about my environment. _The ocean is 3-ish miles...that way. South. And that tree's an oak. And there's a herd of deer six miles to my North-North East. _

_Focus, Mia. _

_Oh. Sorry, Sam._ Because Blackie was Sam, obviously, just as obviously as the russet one was Jake, and there was Leah, Paul, Quil…everyone. And me. I spun in a brief circle, trying to see what I looked like, but got distracted by my tail and continued spinning, trying to catch it.

_Mia._

_Oops. Sorry, Sam, _I repeated. The pack laughed, and a few individual voices started to stand out, but I forced them to quiet down a bit. I wanted to focus. I wanted to prove that I could be good at this.

Alarm bells suddenly started going off in my head, and everyone shut up. Something was headed in our direction through the trees, and my newly honed wolf senses didn't like whatever it was. At all.

_Mia? _Several asked. _What's wrong? _

_Mia. _This was Jake. _Why are you freaking out? _

_There's…I don't know…someone coming? Fast. Not human. Not wolf. _

Ten noses went up in the air, and then everyone relaxed.

_It's just the Cullens,_ Sam told me. _Vampires. We know them. _

_Vampires? Like…fangs and coffins? _

_Yes, no, and no. Jake, please fill her in. _

Jake bounded to my side as the rest of the wolves started moving, settling into a semicircle. Sam stood at the middle. Jake nudged me into a space between himself and Quil, who jostled me good-naturedly. Jake stood directly to Sam's right. Several of the wolves settled themselves to the ground, lolling around and giving out an air of complete relaxation; Jake, Sam, Leah, and Paul stayed standing. My body was still adjusting to the whole horizontal body position thing, but I wasn't quite ready to handle vampires lying down, so I sat next to Jake, who turned and nudged my shoulder affectionately.

_Calm down. _

_Vampires. You couldn't have just said that at the bonfire? _

_You wouldn't have believed me. _

I pushed his shoulder. _I might have. _

A strange smell was starting to flood the clearing. Jake obviously noticed it, too. _At least we always know when they're coming. The Cullens aren't average bloodsuckers. They like to think of themselves as vegetarians because they don't _feed_ on humans, but they're still pretty nasty. There're a bunch of them. _

_How many is a bunch? _

_Seven and a…a human. _

I could tell that everyone else was doing their best to not comment or play a part in this conversation. Must be a touchy subject.

_It is touchy. Her name is Bella, Bella Swan. She's…_in love_ with one of the leeches, Edward. Tall, pale, apparently attractive. He reads minds, watch out for that. _

There was more to it than that. A few brief images entered my mind—Jacob with a human girl, Jacob kissing her, her punching him.

_Back off, Mia, _Quil advised. _Later._

At that moment, the seven most beautiful people I'd ever seen glided into the clearing.

_They are _not _that attractive,_ Jake commented dryly.

Oops.

The slender blonde male who seemed to be one of the oldest and the leader stepped forward and inclined his head slightly towards both Sam and Jake, then greeted each pack member by name. He turned to me last, opened his mouth to speak, and sighed.

"You, my dear, are what we're here about." He turned back to Sam. "Would you all change, please? What we have to say concerns all of you, so we'd like your responses. Also, we'd like to meet your newest addition in person."

No one moved, but there was a lot happening in my head. Everyone hated this idea. Well, almost everyone. Jake didn't seem to mind, and Sam was on the fence.

"They don't like the idea, Carlisle," a different vampire told the head one. "They're not comfortable. They still don't completely trust us—without Victoria as a common enemy, they're not sure."

A small, slightly frightened face peeked out from behind this one, who, I realized, must be Edward. And the face must belong to Bella, the human.

_Excellent, Sherlock,_ Leah thought at me from across the arc.

"Please," Carlisle protested. "Some of us can leave, if that will make you more comfortable."

Edward laughed quietly, and it was immediately clear why; the pack hated the idea of appearing weak in front of the vampires more than the idea of being exposed.

One by one, the wolves moved back into the woods. I took a last look at Bella, then trotted back into the trees, thankful that my wolf self knew how to coordinate my legs instinctively. Fading consciousnesses in my head indicated that the others were changing back to humans. Jake, by contorting himself oddly, managed to untie a string around his rear leg, and three pieces of fabric fell to the ground. He picked up the blue one in his mouth and jogged away behind a few layers of trees.

_You'll have to get used to it sooner or later, but for now, it'll do. Clothes don't magically appear when you transform, you have to carry them around. _

I nudged the green fabric: it unfolded into a pair of my running shorts.

_I don't know if this is going to work. No one's ever tried to change back so soon after the first transformation, but Sam thinks you'll be fine._

_Sam _thinks_ I'll be fine? _

_You'll be fine. It's just…there's this instant between being wolf and being human, and we don't really exist in that moment. You have to not get distracted by that, or you'll get lost. _

_Get lost? _

_Don't think about it. Just focus. Focus on being human, on the need to be human. Try to visua—_

Just like that, Jake's voice was gone from my head. I opened my eyes—I'd closed them to visualize—and I was human again, standing in the woods, completely naked. I quickly grabbed the shorts and what turned out to be a tank top and tugged them on, bizarrely worrying about how my hair looked. I found a hair tie in one of my pockets and was snapping it onto the end of my ten-second braid when Jake sauntered back over to me in jeans.

"Not bad for your first time."

I smiled. "I do what I can."

Jake snorted, grabbed my hand, and towed me back to the clearing. It was strangely silent in my head, but not entirely empty. I could still feel the others there, around the edges, just heartbeats away. We stepped into our places.

Carlisle stepped forward. Jake tugged my hand and I automatically went with the pull, ending up partially behind him. Carlisle took a step back. Jake let of my hand.

A disgruntled noise came from Edward. Every head snapped to him.

"Sorry," he said. "But it seems that Jacob has managed to find himself someone just as unique as Bella."

"Sorry, what?" I blurted. There were several parts of that sentence that I didn't quite understand.

Edward turned to me. "Hello, Mia. I apologize for not introducing myself. My name is Edward Cullen, and, as I'm sure Jacob has explained to you, I have the ability to read any mind I come across, with the previously singular exception of Bella here. And now I find that you, Mia, have the same shield."

An excited gasp emitted from the other end of the vampire line, where a tiny pixie-like girl danced in place, looking extremely pleased. When she spoke, it was almost too quick to follow.

"Hi Mia! I'm Alice, and I'm so glad that we're going to be friends! Oh, and you're so right, that's going to be so much fun, I can't wait! And don't worry about Bella being jealous, it's never really that bad and she'll get over it very quickly."

I blinked. Jake growled. Sam spoke.

"We were under the impression that…Alice…couldn't see into our futures."

"I can't usually, but Mia's special." Alice positively beamed at me. I blinked again.

"Well, now that we've met," Carlisle interjected. "The reason we came. The Volturi are coming."

Growls. Tension. Flashes of unease.

"We'll explain later," Jake muttered to me.

"Why?" Sam asked sharply.

"Two reasons, from what Alice has seen. Bella, of course, but they're expressing interest in Mia."

"They've never 'expressed interest' in us before."

"We don't know why. All we know is that something about Mia has them planning a visit."

"When?"

"We're not sure. Their plans are still up in the air, but probably early next year."

"Months from now?" There was a plain who-cares? attitude in Sam's voice.

"Months may seem like a long time to you," Edward responded. "But when the life of the one you hold most dear is threatened, they go by quickly."

Silence rang through the clearing.

"What do we do?" Jake asked through gritted teeth, his question directed at Edward, not Carlisle.

"_We_ will deal with our side of the issue in due time," Edward said quietly, precisely.

Every heart in the pack picked up speed.

"You know what that means, bloodsucker," Jake growled.

"Jacob," Sam cautioned.

"Regrettable, but unavoidable," sighed Carlisle.

"Wrong. Completely avoidable." Jake was still growling.

"What you do is your business," continued Edward as if no one had interrupted. "We merely felt as though you merited a warning after your help earlier this year."

"Thank you," Sam said in a low, dangerous voice. "Now leave."

Without another word, the vampires melted into the trees. Bella attempted a half-wave, but no one responded and she was gently led into the woods.


	5. Adjusting

DISCLAIMER: I am not Stephenie Meyer. I do not own anything.

Chapter Five: Adjusting

After hours of crash courses in werewolf history, werewolf-vampire history, fighting as a wolf and fighting as a human, I collapsed on my couch. Jake crashed around in the kitchen, supposedly making me a sandwich but making a heck of a lot of noise in the process.

"So, the Volturi?" I called over the racket. There was a momentary pause in the sound, but then it kicked up with renewed vigor.

"Not tonight, Mia," Jake shouted.

"Why?"

The noise stopped. Jake leapt over the back of the couch, landed gracefully but with a ridiculous thud, and put a tray of about twenty PB&Js on the table. I think I inhaled three before I stopped to taste.

"Mia, you've had a ridiculous day," Jake said, midway through his fourth sandwich as well. "You went to school after a night of both your younger siblings throwing up, your boyfriend of almost a year broke up with you, I ticked you off enough to make you changed into a wolf for the first time, and you then met a coven of leeches. I'm not adding to that. Not tonight."

"Fine." I yawned. "I'm kind of tired anyway."

Jake laughed as I struggled to my feet. "Yeah, I figured. Where are you going?"

"To bed, of course." I yawned again, got dizzy, and Jake's added tug to my hand had me tumbling back to the couch. I landed against his shoulder, which he didn't seem to mind. I tried to get up again, but he let his arm fall down around my waist, and it was heavy.

"Just sleep, Mia. We'll talk in the morning."

I meant to argue, but I found my eyes drifting closed.

"Wait!" I practically shrieked, sitting up straight. "Bailey and Abby! Oh my God, where are they?"

Jake laughed again, forcing me back to the couch. "They're at Sam and Emily's. Emily will get them to school in the morning, too, so stop worrying."

"I was worried about this from the beginning," I yawned. "I've got to take care of them, Jake, they're all I've got, and I'm all that they've got."

"So what am I? And Sam? And Emily?" Although he was joking, there was a hint of honest pain in his voice that I'd forgotten him. "Our family is your family now, Mia. You're stuck with us, and that goes for Bailey and Abby, too."

He might have said more after that, but I'd settled back into his shoulder and closed my eyes.

______________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________

It was dark out when I woke up in my bed with a pounding headache, incredibly sore muscles, and the overwhelming desire to take a shower. I stumbled out of bed, caught sight of myself in a full-length mirror and froze.

I had not looked like that the day before. I'd been sixteen before.

It was still there, a little, at least in my face, but the rest of me…my hair was longer, and lighter than I remembered. I had arm muscles, for the first time ever. I lifted the hem of my tank top and ran my hand over my mysteriously rock-hard and flat abs. My shorts were hanging dangerously low on my hips. I tugged at the drawstring.

My eyes were different, too. It's cliché, but there was something wolfish in my eyes.

It wasn't like I'd been fat before. I was on the varsity soccer team and ran pretty much every day when we weren't in season, but this was different than being in shape, this was like…being designed for power and strength and speed.

I shook my head and continued on to the shower. I stood under the hot water for a long time, letting the craziness of yesterday flow down the drain.

Of course, when I stepped out of the bathroom in my towel, Jacob was leaning against the wall and all the craziness came flooding back.

"Hey, wolf-girl," he said with a grin. "How'd you sleep?"

"Well, I guess, considering. What time is it?"

"Around nine," he said, tailing me back to my room.

"Nine? Why isn't the sun up yet?"

"It's nine PM, Mia. The sun went down three hours ago."

"Nine PM? I slept through school! And Abby and Bailey! And a whole day!" I frantically tugged underwear up under the towel and a tank top over it—years of cross-training in swimming had given me wonderful deck-changing skills.

_________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________

School became tedious really, really quickly. I understood the need to graduate from high school, and I kept my grades at their A average, but it just didn't compare to my extracurricular activities. Not to mention that I was constantly on edge, trying to stay calm so I wouldn't go all wolfy if Peter Johnson made fun of me, or that I saw Logan every day and missed him so much that my heart actually ached. I counted the minutes each day until I could leave and run into the forest to join the pack. They teased me about Logan, but almost everyone had a tale of unrequited love. It was easy to forget about, too, especially when they were teaching me how to fight.

There were some weird bits, though, once I got over the initial weirdness of the entire situation. Like the fact that I could block everyone out of my head in wolf form, which no one else could, and the way I was more inclined to follow Jake than Sam, although no one would tell me what that was all about. There was also the way Billy Black, Old Quil, and some of the other elders looked at me, like they weren't quite sure what they were seeing.

I think I'd thrown my phone across the room three times before Jake came over to wake me up. With his usual respect for my boundaries, he showed up in my room, no shirt, and woke me up by flopping down on top of me.

"I'm not wearing pants," I protested sleepily.

"Like I care. Up, wolf-girl. Your presence is requested at the Cullen household."

I shoved him off (I actually managed to send him flying halfway across the room, which was pretty cool) and jumped out of bed. "My presence is requested _where_?"

Jake talked as I went running around the room, grabbing a change of clothes and moving into the bathroom to shower. "Carlisle, the head vamp, called Sam this morning and said that the psychic one said that you need to come over today. Apparently, they've got some things to discuss with you."

I made sure he was sitting innocently outside the bathroom, then climbed in the shower. "What do they want to talk to me for? Cold water, cold water!"

Jake snorted. "You're asking me to interpret the mind of a leech?"

"Sorry. Must've hit my head harder than I thought when you tackled me last night."

"If you would've been on guard like you were supposed to, I wouldn't have been able to tackle you."

"If you had waited for the signal like you were supposed to, I would have been on guard."

"No one attacking you in real life is going to wait for a signal."

"No one attacking me in real life is going to be projecting images of Bella Swan combing her hair while I'm getting ready."

"Low blow."

I turned off the shower. "Don't start a fight you can't finish."

"Are you seriously done? That was, like, less than two minutes."

I pulled my clothes on and started rubbing my hair dry with a towel. "Yeah, I've heard about your forty-five minute showers. Way to save the planet."

"I'm a protector. I am saving the planet."

I walked out of the bathroom, tossing my towel on Jake's head as I went. He followed me as I threw on a sweatshirt, braided my hair, and found my car keys.

"Why not just run?'

I sighed, put my hands on my hips, and stared at him. "Jacob Black. I'm going to the den of a coven of vampires by myself. I have no idea why I'm going, and I have no idea what these vampires are like. I figure showing up A, as their mortal enemy and B, with the thoughts of ten of their other mortal enemies in my head won't be the best first impression. Also, I'm not you, and don't innately want to do everything in my power to make vampires suffer, and I know that the wolf smell bothers them. So, no, I'm not running. Anything else?"

"Yeah," he said, edging by me out of the door. "Ask Bella if she's in love with me yet." He winked and took off for the forest. I rolled my eyes, locked the door behind me, and headed for my car.

Jake came rustling out of the woods two seconds later, ran up to me, and grabbed me in a fierce hug. "I'm not happy about letting you go on your own," he said quietly when he'd decided to let me breathe again. "Sam thinks you'll be okay, but I'll be waiting on the border. Anything goes wrong—anything, Mia—I'm there."

"Uh, thanks, Jake."

He gave me one more hug before running away again.


	6. Vampires

DISCLAIMER: I am not Stephenie Meyer. I do not own anything you recognize.

Chapter Six: Vampires

I sat in my parked car, staring at the Cullen house. It was huge, one of those things that you can't really believe people lived in, which I guess was fitting—the Cullens weren't really _living _there, were they?

Someone knocked on my window and my heart skipped a beat. The pixie, Alice, was hopping from foot to foot, waiting eagerly. I took a deep breath and climbed out of the car. She hugged me tightly, the hardness and coldness of her body taking me by surprise. She had a weird smell; definitely not wolf, and definitely not human. It didn't exactly bother me; it was just interesting. She grabbed my hand and started towing me towards the house. The closer we moved, the more distant the presences in my head became. Unease radiated from all of them, especially the only that I could vaguely identify as Jake. He was worried.

That made two of us.

Alice pulled me inside, where the other six vampires and Bella were sitting around the TV, apparently very focused on whatever was on. I had the distinct impression that they had no interest whatsoever in Grey's Anatomy.

"Look who's here!" Alice sang. She skipped away, settling into a tall, blonde, scary-looking vampire's arms. The leader, Carlisle, rose gracefully to his feet and gestured to a door on my left.

"Mia. We're so glad you came. Would you care to talk in private for a moment?"

My head was starting to spin a little. The air was heavy. I was new to this whole mythical creature thing, but there was something deep in my nature that was vaguely uncomfortable with being around so many vampires. I knew it didn't bother me as much as it did the rest of the pack, but it was still there. I focused on Carlisle's face, which was kind, and nodded. I followed him into the room, all too aware of the many pairs on eyes boring into my back.

He sat behind a desk and gestured to an armchair across from him. I sat.

"Well, Mia, how are you doing?"

It took a few tries to get my voice to work. "Well, thank you. Yourself?"

He chuckled. "I'm well, thank you. How are you adjusting to your new life?"

I tore my eyes away from the absurd number of diplomas and certificates on the wall. "Um, fine, I think. It's a lot to take in all at once, and it is very new, like you said, but I can't complain too much. The guys are great."

"Just the men? Don't you appreciate Leah's company?" He gave me a knowing look.

"Leah is…full of surprises."

Carlisle laughed. "I understand entirely. Edward has communicated Leah's, shall we say, idiosyncrasies?"

"As good a word as any, although a lot less colorful than Jake's."

A minute or two passed in companionable silence. I continued looking around the room, trying to figure out how many times over Carlisle had achieved "Dr." status, and he was watching me in the strangely still way that vampires seemed to have.

"I supposed we should come to the point," he said in a calm voice. "Alice believes that Sam will want to resume your training fairly soon. Do you remember in the clearing, when we warned your pack of the impending visit by the Volturi?"

"Yes. Something about them being interested in me?"

Carlisle sighed. "Very interested, actually. There's not really a lot I can tell you, because they're keeping their plans carefully shielded from Alice."

Something funny was going on with my vision. I blinked a few times. "Okay. Um, thanks, but that doesn't really help me much."

Carlisle looked at his hands. "They seem to be becoming increasingly interested in hybridization."

"Why is that a problem? Saving the planet is all the rage nowadays."

"Not cars, Mia."

I blinked again. My vision was still blurring in and out of focus. Little dots were spinning around in the air. "I don't understand."

Carlisle looked up, his eyes somber.

"They're planning on collecting the first suspected vampire-werewolf hybrid."

I was too distracted by my inability to see to really think about what he was saying. The air seemed to be getting heavier, thicker, denser. I fidgeted. When could I leave?

"Look, Carlisle—Mr. Cullen—I appreciate the information, but I think I'm getting sick. I should probably get going." I tried to stand, but the change in position sent the room reeling. I sat back in the chair, put my head between my knees, and focused on breathing.

"Mia," Carlisle said softly. I ignored him. I was starting to freak out a bit. The air wasn't cooperating with my lungs. I pressed my fingertips into my eyelids, trying to hit a reset button or something, but pulled away like I'd been burned—which was exactly the opposite of what had happened.

My fingers were freezing.

"Mia. We think it's you."

I stood up, holding onto the desk to keep myself from falling, trying to get my legs to work. I might have tried to say something, too, but that didn't work, either. Where was Jacob? Where was Sam? What was I doing here?

Then the desk rushed at my face.

* * *

A cool breeze tickling the side of my face woke me up, and I immediately felt better. I still couldn't quite get my eyes to function, but I knew I was outside, and the air was back to normal, and that was more than enough for the time being. My hearing slowly faded back in, and I became aware of the intense shouting match going on over my head. Maybe that was what had woken me up.

I made a small noise involuntarily, just my body checking to make sure that everything worked, and the shouting stopped. A hand touched my shoulder, another, this time cold, brushed my forehead. Someone growled and the cold hand left. The hand on my shoulder shook me gently.

"Mia?" A voice worried near my ear. Jake. "Mia? Can you hear me?"

Apparently, my body passed the systems check, because everything turned on at once. I snapped my eyes open to Jake's face, pushed it away from me, and stood up. Vision, check. Werewolf grace, check.

The scene in front of me was terrifying.

The pack and the vampires stood in two straight lines, facing each other. If I'd thought the last encounter had been uncomfortable, this was off the charts—Paul was shaking already, and the giant, Emmett, was cracking his knuckles. Everyone was growling or swearing, but no one moved. I realized that I was standing between the two lines and swiftly moved to Jake's side.

Carlisle sighed. "Be reasonable, Sam. I wasn't trying to scare or hurt her, but she had to know."

"She didn't have to know," Sam argued. "Not yet. Alice says we've got time."

"It changes," Alice protested quietly. Of everyone in the clearing, she was the only one who didn't appear angry; she actually looked a little frightened. "Their plans are very vague, and they keep jumping around."

"She didn't have to know!" Jake shouted. "We could have protected her just fine without you, the way we'd planned this originally!" He was cringing even before the words had finished leaving his mouth.

I took a step forward and turned to face him. The clearing was dead silent.

Leah snorted. "Smooth, Jake."

"You KNEW?" I shrieked. "You KNEW that I was some mutant half-breed freak and you didn't think it necessary to tell me?"

"Calm down, Mia," Sam cautioned.

"Calm down?" I continued shrieking. "You all knew? I can't believe—assholes!"

The last word came out after Jared and Quil, in wolf form, tackled me to the ground. I realized that I was shaking badly and wandering in and out of the anger that fueled phasing. A wave of calm swept over me inexplicably, and, despite myself, the shaking subsided.

"Stop that!" someone interjected. Bella, I think.

"I'm fine," I protested. "I'm under control. Jared, Quil, please let me up. You're heavy."

"Not you," Bella continued. She was staring down the line at the scary blonde guy. "Jasper, stop."

"It's dangerous, Bella," Edward murmured. "She's a very young wolf. Jasper is keeping her from hurting herself or someone else."

Right. The blonde guy with the emotional atmosphere thing.

"No!" Bella said. "She should be allowed to feel whatever she wants to feel right now. I know what it's like to have the Volturi coming after you and to have your whole world turned upside down in half a second and the whole time I had Jasper keeping me detached from it. Not that I don't appreciate that, Jasper," she added as an afterthought, "but all you're doing is delaying the impact. She'll be fine if you just let her deal with it."

"No offense, Bells," Jake said in a tone that clearly indicated that offense was meant, "but you don't exactly get to tell Sam how to run a pack."

"Well, Sam's doing a pretty shitty job if he won't even tell her what sort of danger she's in," Emmett boomed. "Offense meant, mutt."

If not for Jasper's continued control over the situation, I'm sure that war would have broken out then and there. The Alpha thing is weird and a little existential, but members of a pack do not allow their Alpha to be insulted. It's unacceptable. Thanks to Jasper, however, the pack merely experienced a collective shudder.

"I think Bella is correct," Edward said, mainly to Carlisle. "Mia will be fine. The pack can handle any problems."

Carlisle made eye contact with Edward but stayed silent.

"I understand," Edward said after a few seconds, "but it is not our choice to make."

The veil of calm lifted. I waited for my anger to return, but didn't fight Quil and Jared.

"We will alert you if we gain more detailed views into the Volturi's decisions," Carlisle said to Sam, and with that, the vampires disappeared into the woods. Once again, Bella gave a half-hearted wave to the pack, and my heart went out to her for a split second. She had been right, we did have a few things in common, and she'd spoken up for me. I was beginning to understand why Jake was still pining over her.

Quil and Jared must have taken my momentary contemplation as calmness, because they released me a few seconds later. As soon as I could move all my limbs, I phased. It was easy, considering how pissed I was. Pissed at Jake and the pack for not telling me about the half-and-half thing. Pissed at Carlisle for telling me. Pissed at the universe for forcing me to deal with being not just one mythical creature, but two—actually, for being an entirely new mythical hybrid of two mythical creatures. Pissed at myself for passing out in Carlisle's office.

I took off. I didn't have a clue where I was heading, but I ran, the trees blurring into a continuous green-brown streak. I blocked out the various consciousnesses of the pack as best I could, turning off as much of the human part of me as was possible. After a while, I became aware that someone was running with me.

_Nice to see you, too_, Seth commented brightly. _Where're we going?_

_We aren't. I am. Go home. _As soon as I opened my mind to respond, the rest of the pack's thoughts swirled around in my head. Jake's was noticeably absent.

_Abby. _Sam. _What are you doing? _

_Just leave me alone. _Ugh, I sound like a five-year-old.

_I understand that you're angry. _

I skidded to a stop, sending rocks and small shrubs flying. Seth catapulted past me, pivoted, and returned to my side. _Do you, Sam? Do you really understand? Do you understand that, two weeks ago, I was a teenage girl just trying to get through high school? Do you understand that being a goddamned werewolf means that I spend less time with Abby and Bailey? Do you understand that I might be half vampire, even though vampires are supposed to be our mortal enemies? Do you understand that if that's true, the internal civil war will do much, much worse than kill me? _

I stopped putting my thoughts into words, aware that Sam was still privy to the images and emotions that racked my brain. After a few seconds of watching my panic and confusion, he sighed.

_Fine. Go. But be back by tomorrow. And Seth stays with you. _He ordered all the others to revert back to their human forms and their consciousnesses drifted away until it was just me and Seth, who was thankfully silent. I focused on the rhythm of my paws and the sheer strength in my limbs and just…ran. I slowed myself by the merest fraction of a beat for Seth's sake—the one advantage to being smaller than the guys was that me and Leah were the fastest by a long shot—and just…ran.


	7. Newcomer

**This chapter is dedicated to freeforall, my very first reviewer. Thanks, and I'm glad you like it!**

DISCLAIMER: I am not Stephenie Meyer. I do not own anything you recognize.

Chapter 7: Newcomer

By the time we got back to La Push, I was exhausted and Seth could barely move, but I felt better. We trotted, wolf-style, into my house. I went upstairs clumsily (dealing with four legs on stairs was still a bit tricky) to phase and put some clothes on, while Seth opened the downstairs closet that, on Emily's advice, was stocked with guys' sweats and cutoffs. I padded barefoot down the stairs and collapsed on the couch, joined by Seth a moment later. Although we could both already feel our muscles knitting back together, that didn't help the exhausted factor.

"Ugh, I'm starving!" Seth moaned. He pulled himself off the couch and stumbled his way to the kitchen. "And I might hate you."

"No worries," I yawned, sticking my thumbs in the air. "Feed me."

"Feed yourself." He was already back, though, holding a tub of mac and cheese I'd made the night before and stuck in the fridge. He handed me a fork. "So? What's the executive decision?"

I chewed and thought before I spoke, feeling out how the words sounded in my head before I committed. "I'm not. At least, I don't think I am."

"Why not?"

"I feel like I would have known."

"You didn't know you were a werewolf."

"Helping or hurting, Seth?"

"Whenever you say that, I'm always hurting," Seth grumbled through a mouthful of food.

"I'm serious. Before I phased, before I even talked to Sam that first time, I think I suspected. After I got the fever, I mean."

"But you'd heard all our stories already," Seth pointed out. I gave him a fierce look and he lifted the mac and cheese in front of his face. "Hurting, I know. Sorry."

"I might have fought it at first, but as soon as I phased, things just fell into place. Being a wolf _feels_ rights. Beings around the Cullens felt wrong. I was uncomfortable the whole time."

"Hate to break it to you, Mia, but the Volturi didn't last thousands of years by being wrong all that often."

"Alice said that her visions change."

"That the time frame changes, yeah, but…hurting. Got it."

"I'm not, Seth," I said, confidence coursing through my body even as I said it. "I'm not. The Cullens can think I am, and the Volturi can come see for themselves, but I know who I am—what I am—who I am. And it's not half-vampire."

Seth grinned, gave me a hug, and stood up. "We were hoping you'd see it that way."

I looked up at him, startled. "What?"

"If you hadn't blocked us all out when you phased and took off earlier, you might've noticed that most of us think the Cullens are wrong. I mean, we're in your head all the time, except when you kick us out, freak that you are, and we'd know if there was a secret half of you that just happened to be vampire hanging out in your brain somewhere."

For some reason completely unknown to me, my eyes were filling with tears. I threw my arms around him, laughing, singing a joyful little chant in my head.

_Not a vamp! Not a vamp! Not a vamp vamp vamp!_

* * *

Two weeks passed pretty much uneventfully.

That's relative, of course. Uneventful for my recent life suddenly involved hanging out with a bunch of gigantic young men who occasionally burst out of their skin and took the forms of gigantic wolves. Days we went to school, work, or patrol; nights we hung out at someone's house, the cliffs, or patrolled. I continued my education in all things werewolf, which incorporated all things vampire, so I eventually found out about the Volturi and what had happened between Jake, Bella, and Edward.

We'd decided that it would be best if Abby and Bailey lived at Sam and Emily's for awhile. I didn't have much time to spend at home, and although Bailey protested loudly, he was still just a kid. In addition, despite the fact that I was getting better every day, I still lost control every now and then, phasing unpredictably. I nearly ripped Collin's face off once, which he thought was incredibly amusing. It sucked to not be with my brother and sister all the time, but I knew it made sense, and it helped not to have to actively worry about them all the time.

I spent a lot of my time training; like I'd said, it helped to be small because I was fast, and I was outrageously strong, but I had nothing on the guys. Leah turned out to be surprisingly helpful, teaching me ways she'd found of getting around the strength issue. Mostly it just meant thinking ahead, but it took some getting used to. The wolf part of me was all about instincts and, as I was finding out, following your instincts when you're fighting someone double your size with ten times your experience is a good way to get hurt.

As soon as I could hold my own against each of the guys (except Sam and Jake; they were just huge. If I ever had to actually fight one of them, I wouldn't stand chance. Leah I also couldn't beat; she was the only one who didn't hold back, which I appreciated, despite several bruised ribs), Sam gave me the day off so Jake could teach me how to hunt. The human part of me was nervous and a little appalled at the idea, but my wolf half couldn't wait for a new challenge.

* * *

_Find the beat of your heart and hold that rhythm in your head,_ Jake instructed. _Now focus on your prey. Find that heartbeat. _

I closed my eyes, listening, feeling. Alternate senses started kicking in, the wolf ones, the ones that knew the difference between the scent of a doe and the scent of a fawn, the ones that knew these woods perfectly.

_Good. Now, slowly, sync your heartbeat. _

I breathed. Slowly, carefully, letting my heartbeats space themselves out.

_Good. When you're ready…_

I didn't wait for him to finish; I pounced. Jake deflected my attack easily and sent me tumbling paws over tail into the trees.

_Kinda weak, Mia. You'll have to do better than that,_ he laughed.

I gathered my thoughts and launched myself at him again, only to be locked in a wrestling match. Other pack members started weighing in, placing bets and cheering.

_Block them out, _Jake commanded. _You have to learn to focus in a fight. Listening to everyone else's battles will get you killed. _

And just like that, he pinned me. He grinned down at me, both of us breathing heavily, then collapsed his body weight on top of me. My breath went whooshing out of my body.

_All right, you two,_ Sam intervened. _Everyone back to the clearing as humans, please. We've got something to discuss. _

Jake and I were the last to arrive, still laughing and shoving one another. Our laughter died out quickly we stepped into the clearing and assumed our places in the pack's semicircle, Jake on Sam's right and me next to Jake. The mood in the clearing was not welcoming, and it was immediately clear why—an unfamiliar young man stood in front of us, dressed the way most of the other guys were, just shorts.

"Everyone," Sam began. "This is Lucas Greenway."

Some of the guys raised a hand or nodded, a few called out greetings. Jacob didn't do anything.

"It's your story, Lucas," Sam continued. "You tell it."

"Ah, okay," the guy said, looking surprised. He stuffed his hands in his pockets and looked down, his hair falling into his eyes as he did so. His hair was blonde, which was a little odd if he was a werewolf, like I assumed. His mom must not have been Native American, since the werewolf gene was passed on from fathers. He was younger than I'd first thought—probably not much older than me or Jake. "Like Sam said, I'm Lucas Greenway. Luke, actually, but that doesn't matter, sorry. Um…I don't really know what to say. I'm not from around here, obviously. My family moved here from Michigan a few months ago. Well, not here, we live a few miles up the coast, but that's not important. I'd never heard of—I mean, I don't think there are werewolves in Michigan. Definitely no stories in our tribe about them, anyway—sorry, that's—sorry."

The guys were starting to relax. Luke was just a kid, so nervous he was almost peeing himself just standing there. The tension in Jake's body held, however, and so did my own. This was…weird.

"Um, so basically I didn't know what to think when I started feeling sick right after we moved. I didn't know what it meant. The night I…uh…changed for the first time, I thought I was dying or something. Nearly gave my mom a heart attack."

"How'd you hear about us?" Jake shot.

Luke looked up for the first time since he'd begun talking. He glanced at Jacob, but immediately shifted his focus to me. His look changed, almost imperceptibly, but his eyes went up and down and a shiver latched onto my spine. Jake growled ever so softly. "I asked how you heard about us."

"Yeah, sorry, I didn't—I mean, I heard rumors. Every tribe up the coast is talking, wondering if they're next. I came down here to find out if it was true, if I wasn't the only one—Sam nearly killed me, thought I was attacking." He looked back at me. "Sorry for staring, I just—I did research and stuff once I started…changing and I've never heard of a female werewolf."

"Did you miss Leah, standing right there?" I gestured over to Leah, who gave Luke a one-fingered wave.

"Oh. Hi. Sorry, I didn't…sorry."

"Luke has asked to join us," Sam said quietly. The reactions from the pack were immediate and predictable. Quil, Seth, Collin, and Brady were all for it; Leah, Paul, and Embry were dead set against it; Sam, Jared, Jake and I were undecided.

"We're going to have to talk about this," Sam told Luke. Luke, although looking disappointed, tried to smile. "It's not a decision that the Alpha gets to make, it's the pack's choice."

"Ok. Er, I'll just go home, I guess? And you'll let me know?"

"No way!" Seth protested. "You can stay with us."

"No, you can't," Leah growled.

"We've got space at my house since my brother went to college," Brady volunteered. "I'm sure my folks wouldn't mind."

Sam turned to Luke. "How's that sound?"

Luke looked so relieved that there really wasn't any need for words.


	8. Decision

**This is a short one (sorry), but things are really going to pick up after this, promise :)**

DISCLAIMER: I am not Stephenie Meyer. I do not own anything you recognize.

Chapter Eight: Decision

_No freaking way_, Leah exploded. _No freaking way. _

_Aww, come on! _Seth whined. _He's cool. He needs us. _

_We don't know anything about him_, Embry interjected. _He could be some psycho killer or something. _

_I could say the same thing about you, _Quil shot back. _We all know you're a lunatic._

We were lying around in a circle behind Sam's house, discussing the Luke issue. Luke was sitting a short distance away, playing cards with and talking to Bailey, who'd taken an immediate liking to the new kid. Luke was trying hard not to show his nerves, but he kept glancing over his shoulder. I wondered what we'd look like to an outsider: nine giant and two not-quite-as-giant wolves flopping around, enjoying the rare sunlight.

Jake nudged me to bring my attention back to the circle.

_We don't have to accept him right away, _Jared offered. _We could just let him run with us for a while. See what he's like. _

_We won't be able to hear him, though, _Paul argued. _We won't know any more about him then than we do now. _

_We might, _Seth pleaded.

_He's too nervous, _Leah growled. _He's hiding something. _

_This isn't getting anywhere, Sam, _Jake pointed out. _We're talking in circles. _

_Can I say something? _I asked. No one stopped me, so I continued. _I know that I'm the youngest, wolf-wise, so I don't know as much about dealing with this sort of thing as the rest of you. But we all remember how hard the transition was the first time. Not knowing who you are or how you fit or what any of it means. And we all—except Sam—had someone else there, guiding us through it. We had a family to join right away. Luke doesn't have that. He's nervous because we're his one chance at belonging somewhere, and instead of accepting him, we're making him sweat it out on the sidelines. _

Sam took over where I left off. _Mia's right. Going through it alone was horrible, and I can't—won't—wish that on anyone else. Our primary responsibility is to keep our people safe, and to do that we need to keep the pack safe, but he's just a kid. _

For a while, there weren't a lot of words, just a lot of impressions, reviewing what we knew about Luke, trying to figure out where he would have gotten the gene, and gauging the risk of allowing an unknown wolf to join us versus the risk of letting an unknown wolf wander around by himself. Finally, Sam put the issue up to vote.

_Fuck no, _growled Leah.

_Same, _Embry agreed, looking a little ashamed.

_Yes! _Chorused Seth, Brady, and Collin.

_Yeah_, echoed Quil, eyeing his overenthusiastic younger pseudo-brothers with a hint of annoyance.

_No_, countered Paul.

_Not until he proves himself, _Jared thought.

_That's not a vote, Jared,_ Sam interrupted.

_No, then, _Jared clarified.

Four to four. Only me, Sam, and Jake left. I tried to make up my mind, but I wasn't sure. Despite my little speech, something about Luke still made me uneasy.

_Yes,_ Sam thought. _He's one of us. We ought to treat him like it. _

_No. _Jake's thought was quiet and unhappy, but firm. _I don't trust him. _

Oh, shit. Of course. It would come down to me.

_It's not my decision, _I squeaked. _It can't be. I'm new. I don't know what to do. _My thoughts whirled. Did I honestly have to cast the deciding vote on whether or not this kid got to join our pack? I didn't know anything about him. I was still figuring out where I fit into this group of nutjobs.

_Be nice, _Seth chided.

_Oops. Sorry. _I looked around the circle at the faces of my new family, then over to where Luke was playing with a member of my original family. Sitting there with the sun glinting off his weirdly blonde head, he stuck out like…well, like a blonde kid in a place full of werewolves.

_Yes,_ I thought quietly.

Elation broke out in half the pack and hostility erupted from the other. Luke and Bailey looked up, trying to figure out what was going on. Sam phased and Luke put his hands over Bailey's eyes, which was a little unnecessary, but I appreciated it nonetheless.

"There's no going back on this, Luke," Sam said.

Luke's face lit up. "You mean I get to join?"

"By majority vote, yes. Do you understand what you're agreeing to?"

"Of course not! But I don't care. I just…thank you. All of you."

Sam disappeared into the house and came back a few seconds later, wearing shorts and holding a small knife.

_What's going on?_ I asked Jake. _What's with the knife? _

_Luke's not part of our tribe, _Jake explained bluntly. He was angry with me for voting the way I had. _That's why we had to vote instead of him just automatically becoming part of the pack the way you did. We don't share blood. For him to be one of us, he has to give up his old tribe and join ours. _

As Jake explained, Luke held out his hand, palm up. Sam drew the knife swiftly across Luke's palm, opening a long, red gash. Then Sam pulled the knife across his own palm and shook Luke's hand. As soon as their blood mingled, I felt an eleventh consciousness awaken in my head. I guess it was official.

**Have you been keeping track of the foreshadowing? I certainly hope so...  
Also, I'm running out of pre-written chapters, so if you have comments/questions/concerns, I may or may not be receptive. Thanks!**


	9. Luke

**My eternal gratitude to reviewer number two, Annemieke. Thanks!**

DISCLAIMER: I am not Stephenie Meyer. I do not own anything you recognize.

Chapter Nine: Luke

The majority of the next few days was spent getting to know our newest brother. It turned out that he'd been a werewolf longer than I had, so I was still the youngest wolf, but he was chronologically only a few days younger than Jake. He spent a lot of time with Brady, Collin, and Seth, but it was clear that he wanted to get to know the Jake/Quil/Embry crowd better, and while Quil was all for it, Jake wanted nothing to do with him. Patrols and training became incredibly awkward and painful as everyone's feelings about Luke were out there for everyone else to see. Luke usually kept extremely quiet and out of the way whenever he could.

There was a bit of an issue when Alice popped up at the boundary asking to see me one night when Luke was on patrol with Jared. Apparently, Luke completely lost it and tried to kill Alice, crossing the boundary in his anger. Jared had managed to drag Luke back across the line by the time Emmett, Jasper, and Edward showed up, but it definitely didn't help Luke's case. I'd almost thought that it would, seeing as how so many of guys wanted a crack at the Cullens, but they used it as an example of Luke having no self control, which was extremely unfair. All of them had fought alongside the Cullens during the Victoria/newborn battle, so they at least had some experience. Luke got taken by surprise by a mortal enemy. Give the kid a break.

Needless to say, this attitude didn't make Leah like me anymore. Nor did the fact that I was honestly starting to like some of the Cullens. Alice, as it turned out, had only wanted to invite me out to dinner with her, Bella, and Esme. Carlisle and Sam had had to meet to discuss it, but they'd eventually agreed that we could go to Port Angeles. Only Bella and I ate, of course, but we saw a movie after and no one even mentioned the hybrid issue. By the end of the night I had a bit of a headache from my vision doing strange things again, but I was happy. I liked the pack, and Emily was great, but it was nice to spend some testosterone-free time.

* * *

There was no one home when I got to Sam and Emily's, but the back door was open, so I let myself in. I was early and had nothing to do, so I started perusing their bookshelves, which were huge and crammed with books from every time period and corner of the world. I saw something that looked interesting on a top shelf, a good four feet above my head, and started climbing. A few shelves up, I felt the case starting to tip, but before I even had time to think it righted itself against the wall. I looked down; Luke was bracing the case with one hand and holding the other up behind me.

"Sorry if I scared you," he said, seeing the look on my face. "I just got back from patrol and I heard noises in here."

"No, it's fine," I laughed, grabbing the book and hopping down with Luke's assistance. "I probably would have made a huge mess if you hadn't been here, so thanks."

"I do what I can. What book did you just have to have?"

I held it up for his inspection. "It's a photo album, actually, from Sam and Emily's wedding. I was looking for a book, but this caught my eye instead."

He flipped through a few pages. "Looks pretty cool. Mind if I look with you?"

"Sure," I said, fighting my natural but inexplicable discomfort at being around him. "Couch?"

We settled next to one another, looking at the old photos, and soon enough were trading stories about weddings we'd been to and our own plans for marriage.

Luke had just finished outlining his dream wedding, which involved plenty of TVs for the guys to watch whatever game was on, a live band, and chocolate cake. I laughed at his desire for bright green as a wedding color. "What?" he protested. "It's my favorite. Why, what're your colors going to be?"

I looked at my lap. "I think it's kind of silly for me to be making wedding plans anytime soon."

"They're not wedding plans, Mia, this is the wedding of your dreams we're talking about."

"I know, but still. I'm sixteen. And I've got two kids at home who depend on me for everything."

"Bailey and Abby are awesome. How'd that happen, anyway?"

I stared a picture. "It's not important."

"Oh. Sorry."

"Don't worry about it. It's in the past, right? Hakuna matata?"

"If you say so."

"Anyways, the point is, I come with two dead parents, a dead older brother, and two younger siblings who depend on me. On top of that, I'm a teenage werewolf who barely has control of her phasing and has a bunch of werewolf guys who are extremely protective of me because they view me as a little sister. And I've got Leah. Basically, my chances at romance are shot."

"What about imprinting?"

"What about it?"

He looked at me, his blue eyes piercing through the front I was putting up. "You know, not all the guys see you as a younger sister."

I blushed and looked away. "Yeah, you're right; I think Jared likes beating me up during fights too much to think I'm a sibling."

"That's not what I meant."

I became extremely aware of how close we were sitting and his arm resting on the back of the chair. Also, his eyes were really, really pretty. Is this why I was uncomfortable around him? Because I had a crush?

The front door banged open. Luke moved his arm, slid a few inches away, and flipped a page in the album, not looking at me.

"We're home!" Abby sang. She dashed inside and threw herself into my arms. "Mia! Do you know what I did in kindygarten today? Do you do you should I tell you wanna know?"

"Of course she wants to know!" Luke exclaimed, pulling Abby's shoes off and tickling her feet. "Tell her, Abby, tell her!"

Abby, of course, was far too incapacitated to speak. Bailey came running in a few seconds later and launched himself over the back of the couch, trying to put Luke in a headlock. "Release my sister, foul villain!" He was currently really into pirates, and had taken to talking like one at every opportunity.

Luke howled in fake pain and stood up, lifting them both easily. He winked at me, said hi to Emily, then carried Abby and Bailey outside, where they proceeded to wrestle on the grass. I went to the kitchen to help Emily with the groceries.

"He's a good kid," Emily said quietly.

I looked out the window to see Luke holding Bailey off with one hand while tickling Abby with the other. "Yeah. He is."

"Cute, too."

"Nice try."

"I was just saying." She opened the fridge. "It's okay, you know. To have crushes. Just because you're not imprinting doesn't mean that you don't get to fall in love."

"I'm not in love, Emily. Not even close."

"Methinks she doth protest too much."

I tossed a head of lettuce at her face. She caught it easily (I was always a little slower around Emily, for some reason) and laughed, the scars on her face stretching. "Methinks she doth protest just enough."

"Whatever you say, honey. Just know that there's always someone watching."

"Don't I know it?" I muttered. Sam and Jake chose that moment to burst through the door, shirtless as usual. Sam rushed over to Emily, wrapped his arms around her waist, and swept her up into a kiss. Jake made a retching noise and then rushed over to me. He grabbed me by my hips and swung me around. We air kissed outrageously until Sam noticed and started throwing things.

"They're just jealous," Emily chastised as I dodged a bag of carrots (said bag exploded against the wall, showering us all in carrot bits).

"Take cover!" Jake yelled as Sam picked up some potatoes. He knelt and pulled me down with him, his hand on the small of my back. My shirt had ridden up during our mock makeout session, so his hand was on my bare skin. I'd reached out to steady myself against his chest when he'd gone down, and my hand was still there, over his heart. It was beating extremely quickly. We stared at each other as chunks of potato rained down from above.

What the hell was wrong with me?


	10. Cliffs

Disclaimer: I am not Stephenie Meyer. I do not own anything you recognize.

Chapter Ten: Cliffs

Days passed. It was hard to keep track of exact dates because my life wasn't very well scheduled. I had school, which was regular, of course, but I wound up at school on Saturday more than once because I had no idea what day of the week it was. That happens when you're up all night training, patrolling, and helping your younger brother figure out long division (why do we have to learn to do those things by hand anymore? That's what calculators are for). I was also spending more time with the Cullens—Emmett really liked wrestling, and he was a fun opponent—so that was a draw on my time, and avoiding Jake and Luke with everything I had, which was a lot harder than you'd expect. Everyone wanted to know why I blocked them out when we were patrolling or training, and what was I supposed to say? It was worth it, though. If I never had another hormone-driven interaction, that'd be perfectly fine by me.

* * *

I really hate being woken up by my phone. The ring for the alarm and the ring for a call are different, so I immediately know if I'm supposed to wake up or if someone is waking me up, and I tend to be very grumpy when it's the latter.

"Mia?"

"Luke? What time is it?"

"Six. In the morning. I'm sorry for waking you up, but I just got back from patrol with Jake and I really need someone to talk to."

I sat up, yawning. "Yeah. Sure. I guess. Where are you?"

"The cliffs. You're coming?"

"T minus two minutes," I said and flipped the phone shut. _This is probably a bad idea. I should probably tell someone_. Who would I tell? Not Jake. Sam would think it was silly that I was telling him. I didn't really relish the idea of waking anyone else up. I pushed the thought from my mind, pulled off my PJs, and tied a tanktop and a pair of shorts to my leg. I waited until I was outside to phase. I still wasn't too good at stairs with four legs, as was evident by the claw marks in the wood from the last time I'd fallen.

A mythical creature who can't handle a staircase. Awesome.

I kept my mind closed to everyone else as I ran. I got to the cliffs in slightly under two minutes, phasing and pulling my clothes on before stepping out of the woods. Luke was sitting with his back to me, looking out over the water.

"Luke?"

He stood up and turned around, smiling. "Hey, Mia. Thanks for coming. Anyone know you came?"

"No. Why?" I was immediately suspicious. Should I be regretting this decision?

"They don't trust me," he sighed, tilting his head back to look at the stars. "If they knew we were here alone, they'd probably send a chaperone."

"Valid point. I guess you can't really blame them, though."

"Why not?" He was suddenly bitter. "I've never done anything to anyone in this pack. I just want to fit in."

"They're…stubborn. For the most part, they grew up together—everyone on this reservation did. We know each other inside and out, just because we've had the same experiences. They'll get there, they just need time." Some part of my mind registered that my phone was ringing, but whoever it was could wait. I pulled the phone out and set it by a tree.

He made a noise of disgust and whirled around on his heel. "Time! They're in my head constantly, they KNOW what I'm thinking, how much time can they need?" He stopped, breathing heavily, and looked up at me. "Why do you trust me?"

"I'm not sure that I do."

He took a few steps forward and grabbed my hands. "Why not, Mia? What can I do to prove it?"

"I don't think it's something you can prove, it just…happens."

His eyes were doing that boring-a-hole-into-your-soul thing again. "Can't you let it happen?"

I tried to look away, but I couldn't. "I want to."

He took a step closer. We were inches apart. "You want to what?"

I couldn't answer. I didn't know what I would say. I tore my gaze away, but he put his hand on the side of my face and made me look at him. When he spoke again, his voice was deep and husky. "You want to what, Mia?"

My phone was ringing again, but it didn't matter. I kissed him. I don't know what came over me, and I regretted it immediately, but I kissed him. I pulled away. "Sorry. I didn't mean to, I mean…I don't know what I mean." Blood rushed to my face.

He kissed me. My kiss had been quick and fierce, but this was different, slow and careful. It was…nice. As soon as that crossed my mind, I turned my head.

"Luke, we can't. I mean, I don't…"

He cut me off with his lips, more forcefully than the first time. One of his hands moved from mine, up my arm, down my side, slowly, leaving little tingling sensations under my skin. The hand slid to my hip and pulled me flush against him. My head was cloudy, but I managed to push against his chest with my other hand. I got my lips free, but he moved his down to my neck.

"Luke, stop," I gasped, still pushing against him. He growled into my neck and I jumped, my heart racing. What the hell was going on? "Luke, stop," I repeated, louder. Some part of my brain registered that my phone was ringing.

He shoved me backwards until I hit a tree. He trapped my body with his. I felt the bark cut into my back, but that was the least of his concerns. I kissed him back long enough to get him to let me stand up on my own, and as soon as I had enough space I kneed him between the legs. When he went down, I ran a few yards toward the cliffs to get some space. He was back on his feet by the time I'd turned to face him.

"Look, Luke, I don't know what you think you're doing, but I still don't have complete control over this and you're starting to piss me off."

Luke just smiled, took a step back, and phased.

I spent a few moments in panic, unsure of what was about to happen.

He launched himself at me.

I managed to change a split second before he hit me, and the thoughts of every guy in the pack hit me in a landslide.

_Mia! What the hell is going on? Where are you? What's happening? Why aren't you answering your phone? _

_Luke. Help. HELP. _

_Mia_, said Sam. _Where are you?_

_Don't know. Fighting. _In between trying to keep Luke from doing whatever he was trying to do and trying not to absolutely lose my mind out of fear, I glanced around and sent them brief images of my surroundings.

The distraction cost me. Luke bit me, right where my neck met my shoulder. Jake's howl of anger resonated through my head, then cut off sharply.

Luke released me and took a few steps back. My blood dripped from his muzzle.

_Guys?_ I thought. Weird silence echoed around in my head. _Guys?_

_Figured it out yet, my dear?_ Luke responded. _Or weren't you paying attention when they were telling the legends? _

My mind raced. Luke obviously couldn't be part of our pack anymore, or Sam's power as Alpha would have made him stop. Which meant he was his own Alpha. But wolves in different packs couldn't hear each other's thoughts, only the Alphas could…which meant I was either my own Alpha, which wasn't possibly because it wasn't in my blood, or…

_Correct, beautiful,_ Luke whispered. _You're in my pack now. _

Of course. The bite on my neck—involuntary transfer.

My heart sunk.

_Well, Mia, as your new Alpha, don't resist me. Do as I command. _The weight of the double timbre hit me hard. I tried to run, tried to howl, tried to do anything, but I couldn't move, I could barely even breathe.

For the first time since becoming a werewolf, I was freezing.

_Change back_.

My body responded against my will, and I was human again. Luke looked away patiently while I struggled into my clothes. My neck was bleeding heavily. Luke was human by the time I was dressed.

"Fight me again," he whispered, licking blood from my neck, "and I'll kill you."

**WOAH intense. I know some of you are disappointed that Luke turned out to be bad, but don't worry, there's still a few critical characters you haven't even met yet. Read on! **


	11. Fallout

DISCLAIMER: I am not Stephenie Meyer. I do not own anything you recognize.

Chapter Eleven: Fallout

School that day was a nightmare. After forbidding me to contact anyone in my old pack in any way, shape, or form, Luke had ordered that I go back to the way things were before I'd changed. I was sore and covered in bruises, plus the bite marks were turning a funny shade and starting to puff a little around the edges, but there really wasn't anything I could do about that. What was I going to tell a doctor? A rez doctor, in particular.

I didn't talk to anyone all day. Well, I guess I snapped at Alia when she tried to ask how I was, but that doesn't really count.

It was raining—of course—as I walked to my car after school. I flipped my hood up against the water and put my head down. As a result, I didn't see Jacob until I'd practically walked into him.

"Mia."

My mouth didn't open. Luke's voice in my head, loud and painful.

I stepped around him. He moved into my path. Luke's voice, louder.

"Mia."

I stepped deliberately away from him and opened my door.

"I can't believe you would do this," Jake called.

I froze. My head was pounding.

"Oh, so you'll listen to me but you won't talk? Fine. I've got plenty to say. Low, Mia. Low, even for you."

I wanted to turn to him. I wanted him to understand. I wanted Luke's voice out of my head. I wanted home—not the house I lived in, but the home that was Jake and Sam and Quil and everyone.

"Sam's furious." His voice was quieter this time. He was holding back. "He…he issued orders to kill you or Luke if either of you is on our territory."

I'm pretty sure my heart actually stopped. My breath was coming in these tiny, painful little gasps—did they honestly think that I'd chosen this?

"I'm furious. Mia, I..." his voice broke. He cleared his throat. "You broke something more sacred, more important, more real than any of us had ever known. If this hurts the pack in any way, any more than it already has, I'm not going to wait for you to be on our territory. Goodbye, Mia."

My entire body was shaking as he kicked his motorcycle to life and roared away. I managed to climb into the front seat before I collapsed, sobbing helplessly. I curled into a ball on the seat, locked the doors, and tried to calm down.

* * *

It was dark when I woke up.

My face was tight from dried tears. My phone was buzzing against my leg, which was what had woken me. I pulled it out: Luke. I flipped it open and held it a little bit away from my ear. "Hello?"

"Where the fuck are you?"

"I'm sorry," I said, starting to panic and looking for my keys. "I fell asleep, I didn't mean to--."

"Get home. Now." He hung up.

I stared into space for a few seconds, feeling tears starting to burn again, still holding the phone to my ear.

"Leave me alone," I whispered to the dead line. "Please, please leave me alone and let me go back."

The space I was staring into suddenly changed. Shapes were materializing. Wolf shapes. Lots of wolf shapes. I slowly unlocked the door and got out, moving to stand in front of my car. Three wolves moved forward, the others remaining as eyes floating in the darkness.

Sam, Jake, and Paul stared at me. Pure rage hit me like a solid wall, and the tears pushed harder.

Sam changed and came to stand in front of me, so close that his body heat made me all too aware of how close I was to breaking Luke's order.

"Harmony Waters Dawson," Sam said, in his Alpha double-timbre that almost sent me over the edge because I knew that that tone didn't count for me anymore. "We are giving you this one chance to explain."

I tried. I tried so hard. I couldn't even make eye contact. My legs gave out under the weight of Luke's command and I stayed on the ground, my heart beating so fast that it scared me.

"We will kill you," Sam said in a deadly quiet voice. "You are a traitor to this pack, and that cannot be forgiven. Or forgotten. You are no longer welcome here."

By the time I could stand again, they were gone.

Luke was pissed when I got home. Pissed that I was late (later still because I'd had to pull over multiple times on the way home because I couldn't see the road through my tears), pissed that I'd been that close to the pack, pissed because he was Luke and I was Mia.

It wasn't a good night.

* * *

I didn't go to school the next day. Alia and Sheyenne called, and someone came to the door, but I didn't—couldn't—get out of bed

I didn't sleep. Every time I closed my eyes, I had visions of myself, lost in the woods, getting attacked by the pack.

It went on like that for a few weeks. I stopped eating at some point in time—the sight, smell, even the thought of food made me nauseous. Abby and Bailey were still living with Emily, so I spent the long hours after school alone in the house. The Cullens were out of town, so I couldn't talk to them, either. Luke came over every night. He made me go hunting with him, then we'd go back to the house. He always left in the morning before I woke up.

The hardest was Jacob. I got in trouble with Luke frequently when we were hunting because my thoughts drifted to Jacob every few minutes.

It's a good thing werewolves heal fast, because in that two-month period I had seventeen broken bones, at least four lacerations, and innumerable scrapes and bruises with a good scattering of concussions. The original bite mark didn't heal, though; it just stayed inflamed and angry-looking. It was like my body refused to incorporate it, and just let it sit there, hoping it would go away.


	12. Confrontation

DISCLAIMER: I am not Stephenie Meyer. I do not own anything you recognize.

Chapter Twelve: Confrontation

Luke went away for the weekend towards the end of April. My birthday weekend, actually. He was going to visit his relatives in Nevada. I got the usual set of instructions and a good solid black eye before he left.

Friday I just slept. Even the phone, which sat two inches away from my head on the pillow and the loudest setting, didn't wake me up when the attendance office called to inform me that I had another unexcused absence.

Saturday morning, May first, was bright and chilly. April'd been fairly warm that year, so the change was nice. I stepped onto the porch and was hit by the overwhelming desire to _run_, to run anywhere, to run far and fast and loose myself in the rhythm of my paws against the earth. Simple, untainted running.

Less than two minutes later, I was well outside the La Push limits.

My muscles were practically screaming. Luke wasn't as fast as me, so we never really got going during hunts. I was out of shape. All the same, the release was phenomenal. Until I started getting dizzy. I had to stop quickly—the forest was spinning, my vision was getting black around the edges, and I couldn't remember the last time I'd eaten. I couldn't particularly breathe, either.

A noise in the woods off to my left shoved all those issues out the door. I wasn't a girl with an abusive boyfriend and crappy life anymore, I was just a wolf, senses peaked, ready to fight to the death with whatever was coming. The wolf part of me gave out a split second later—being a wolf required way more energy than my body had—so I changed back and struggled into my human clothes, a tank top and shorts. The sound came again, closer this time, but there was nothing I could do to defend myself. I managed to get into a sitting position with my back against a tree and focused on breathing.

A wolf stepped out from between the trees. Sam.

And next to him, Jacob.

Behind the two of them, one by one, the entire pack materialized. A bit more than the entire pack, actually, there were two wolves I didn't recognize.

Someone growled, and panic set it.

I was on their territory.

I hadn't thought about it, I figured that I was off the rez, but the pack's lines extended out well beyond, easily encompassing where I was.

"I'm sorry," I cried as loudly as I could, probably just above whisper-level, trying to stand up. "I'm so sorry, I didn't mean to, I forgot, I'm sorry." I somehow managed to find my feet but knew I wouldn't last there for long. I needed to change and run, faster than I could at the moment, but I had to, I had to, they were going to kill me. My heart was beating faster than I could really comprehend, but I knew that it was starting to skip. I tried to change, tried once, twice, but collapsed on the third try, my heart beating erratically, my breath coming in shallow gasps, crying so hard that I could barely see. They were going to kill me.

Something touched my arm and Luke's voice screamed in my head. New energy—energy that came from not wanting to be killed by the voice in my head—coursed through my body and I rolled away from the contact into a crouching position. Sam stood in front of me, human.

"I'm sorry," I gasped again. "I'm sorry, I'm leaving."

I managed the transformation that time but found that my legs weren't going to run anywhere anytime soon. I stood there, my entire body shaking, still uncertain about what my heart was doing, as Sam changed back into a wolf.

Sam crouched, readying his body to spring. Behind him, everyone else followed suit.

In my head, Luke commanded me to fight them. I immediately started tearing myself apart inside, desperate to avoid a fight. I wouldn't stand a chance.

I lost the internal battle. Someone else took over. My body growled, my body sprung, my body was hit midair by more than one wolf.

After that, I lost track of things. It hurt. A lot.

Then I was pinned under Jacob.

Luke was yelling again, but I was distracted. Something was pushing at the edges of my mind, and there were sounds echoing around in my head; it was like someone was talking a few rooms away. I knew there were words; I just couldn't make them out.

Jacob took a step back. I struggled to my feet, Luke still making me growl, although it was coming out as more of a whimper by now. I was bleeding. I was hurt. My heart was slowing down.

Jacob looked at me. I could still read his emotions, even though I couldn't hear his thoughts. He was torn. Furious, of course, and ready to kill, but also torn.

He whined softly. My heart broke.

Luke's commands started pressing down on me with new force. I needed to get away from them; it was going to kill me to be so close. I turned my head, looking for an escape route, when Jacob and Sam suddenly growled in unison at my movement. I froze at the exact moment, but not because of their growl: the movement of my head was stretching the scabs over the bite. Jacob slowly walked forward, stopping just inches away from me. Luke's voice was screaming, but I couldn't move. I'm pretty sure my heart wasn't beating.

Jacob nosed toward my shoulder. I turned my head again, exposing my neck. Traditional sign of submission. But that wasn't what it meant here. I didn't get to surrender for what I'd done. Jacob was going to kill me, right here, and it would be over.

Luke's voice was deafening, but it didn't matter.

I felt the contact, the pressure, and then nothing.


	13. Return

**Annemieke: What can I say? Every story needs a bad guy. Or two. **

**dancerox421: No need to worry about this story getting dropped--I'm already working on a sequel-type-thing (What's it called when it runs at the same time as another story? A parallel story? Perhaps?) about what the Cullens and Bella are up to the whole time this is happening. **

DISCLAIMER: I am not Stephenie Meyer. I do not own anything you recognize.

Chapter Thirteen: Return

I was drifting.

There was a lot of gray. Some black, some white, but mostly gray.

Luke was there almost as much as the gray was.

I started hearing things at some point in time. Voices that sounded like Sam, Embry, and Quil, but I was also hearing Mark, and Mom and Dad.

I think I was between for a while. Right there, in the middle, on the edge, a breath away from falling and a breath away from coming back.

Then I heard Jacob.

_Mia. Mia, please come back. Don't leave. Mia, please, please. You're strong, you can do this_.

I focused on him. Listening to his voice, bringing his image back into my mind.

The gray started changing. Slowly, painfully slowly, it changed.

Then everything shot into fast forward. I sped back to consciousness, everything clicked on at once, and I opened my eyes to see Jacob and Sam, human, hovering over me.

Panic. Worse than panic, fear. Panic is when you think you still have a chance, and you're trying to find a way out, but fear, this fear, is when you know it's hopeless. You know it's only a matter of time.

But you still can't fight your instincts.

Every muscle in my body contracted to get me upright. Every muscle in my body screamed. Jacob's forearm hit my throat and he forced me back against a wall just as every muscle in my body gave way.

"Mia! What the hell is your problem?"

I was crying again. Of course. "I'm sorry, I'm sorry, please don't, just don't, I didn't mean to and, and, and, Bailey and Abby need me and I really didn't mean to, I'm so sorry."

Jacob removed his arm from my neck and took a step back. I slid down the wall and put my head against my knees, trying to catch my breath. Some part of my brain heard Sam tell everyone to get out. A door open, feet shuffled, a door shut. That struck me as odd. Wouldn't he want everyone to see me get killed?

"You're bleeding."

I took in a confused and shocked breath. I looked up. Jacob was standing there, holding a roll of gauze, looking at me. "So?" I pushed against the wall, grabbed the table, summoned everything left in my body and managed to stand upright again. "Can…can you just do it, please? I won't fight."

Jacob _laughed_. "I don't think you could if you wanted to."

"Look, Jacob," I said, tears starting to flow again. "I get that this is fun for you, but standing here waiting for you to kill me really isn't high on my list of things to do."As I spoke, the room started spinning. I put a hand out for the table again, but it wasn't there, and I fell until Jacob caught me. He lifted me, carried me over to the bed where I must have been earlier, and set me down. He knelt so that we were face-to-face and looked into my eyes.

"Mia. I'm not going to kill you."

"Again, fun for you."

"Mia."

"Don't, Jake. I got the speech about being on your territory, and I'm a traitor, and I hurt all of you, so just--."

He kissed me. The room spun again.

"Please shut up," he murmured against my lips. I nodded, temporarily mute. He pulled away, picked up a fresh roll of gauze and pushed me into a lying down position.

"I'm not going to kill you," he repeated. "Mia, we—me—all of us, we owe you the biggest apology ever." He started peeling old gauze away from my body, gauze that I'd bled through when I leapt off the bed and presumably opened all my wounds. "We know everything. The involuntary transfer, what he…did." His voice dropped several octaves on the last word, more of a growl than anything else. "What he made you do. What we were stupid enough to believe."

His hands were shaking. I made a small noise of pain when he accidently pulled one of the bandages too tight and he drew his hands away immediately.

"It's still my fault," I whispered. "I should've been stronger; I should've found a way around it."

He didn't respond right away. He took a deep breath, pulled me back to my feet, and started unwinding the bandage that was wrapped around my stomach. "Mia," he sighed. "The fact that you survived…involuntary transfer is rough enough on its own. Throw in the added bonuses in your old pack threatening your life, an abusive ass of an Alpha, getting attacked by your old pack and a second involuntary transfer--."

I put a hand over his mouth. I slowly moved my other hand up to the spot between my neck and my shoulder, the spot where Luke's ugly, inflamed mark had been.

It was…different. Still there, but…different. It didn't hurt. It didn't feel red and puffy, it was just a subtle ridge in my skin, but the structure of the teeth wasn't Luke's.

I pulled my hand away from Jacob's mouth. I couldn't ask the question, I couldn't get the words to come out, I just stared.

Jacob turned seven shades of red. "It's me, I'm sorry."

"Sorry?" I squeaked. "Sorry for what?"

"I did it, and it should have been Sam, and now it's weird." He grinned a little at the worried look on my face. "Breathe, Mia. It's not a huge deal. Sam's still your Alpha, but he's your Alpha because he's my Alpha. If that should ever change for some reason, then your Alpha changes, too. It's like…we're a mini-pack. A sub-pack. A pack within a pack."

I smiled to myself. Sub-pack. While Jake busied himself re-bandaging the cut that stretched from my right hip to the bottom of the left side of my ribcage, I investigated the fresh gauze on my arm, which I was already starting to bleed through. Something poked at my mind.

"Jake? Why aren't I healing?"

He secured the bandage and stood up. "We're not actually entirely one hundred percent sure."

I stared.

"Don't freak out," he cautioned. "Sam thinks it's just fallout from the second transfer, like you're so tired that your body isn't fixing anything that isn't going to kill you. We called Carlisle—the vamps are in China or Singapore or somewhere—and he agreed. He said you'd be fine as long as you got a lot of rest. So sleep."

"But I haven't seen anyone. I have to apologize, and Bailey and Abby and Emily…"

"…will understand," Jake finished for me. "Mia, please. This is kind of like getting you back from the dead, only better. If you go and mess up your recovery because you're too damn stubborn to sit still for the next few days, I'll kill you myself."

I felt my heart stutter and my eyes widen.

"God, Mia, I wasn't serious!" Jake dropped back to his knees and gave me a gentle hug, carefully avoiding my bandages. "I would never hurt you," he breathed. I winced as his elbow brushed my ribs, and he sat back on his heels, looking horrified with himself. "Never again, anyway. I'm so, so sorry about that."

"Shh," I chided, reaching over and covering his mouth with my hand. "I'm sleeping here."

He smiled, stood up, and went to leave the room.

"Jake?"

He paused.

"Would you stay? Just for a little, until I fall asleep?"

In response, he dragged an armchair next to my bed, kicked it into recline, and stretched out. "I'll even be here when you wake up."

He was out in less than a minute, and his peaceful half-growl, half-snore lulled me into a dreamless sleep.


	14. Gregorio

**I love introducing new characters late in the game. **

DISCLAIMER: I am not Stephenie Meyer. I do not own anything.

Chapter Fourteen: Gregorio

The next week was one of the most emotional weeks of my life. My wounds had pretty much sealed by the third day, but I was still exhausted all the time. Sam forbade me to phase in case I got stuck in wolf form, so I pretty much just sat around and talked things out with various pack members. I spent a lot of time crying, especially with Abby, Bailey, and Emily. Especially Emily—I don't think she looked at me once without tears welling up in her eyes. Everyone insisted on apologizing, which I found infuriating. Everyone except Leah, that is. She'd looked me over once, said "Glad to see you're alive," and left the room, which was equivalent to jumping into my arms and shrieking with happiness.

I still couldn't sleep alone, though. Sam assured me that they were doing everything they could to track Luke, and Carlisle promised the same once they returned from Thailand, but it didn't change the fact that he was still out there somewhere, getting angrier with me by the minute.

I was finally let out of the house to go to dinner with several of the guys. Seth had picked some obscure place a few miles out of town, the sort of restaurant where you valet your car and the waiters sing in Italian if you tell them that it's your birthday. The staff clearly could not wait for us to leave, so the guys sent me out to retrieve our car while they paid the bill.

I gave the valet guy our little ticket and he jogged off into the darkness.

I tapped my foot impatiently. I've never been much of a waiter.

Someone chuckled behind me. I froze.

"Well, well, well. Mia Dawson, out all by herself at night. Didn't your daddy teach you anything?"

Before I could react, Luke was right behind my, his body pressing against mine, his voice in my ear, his hand at my throat.

"I see you've tried to replace me," he whispered, brushing his fingers over my bite marks. "How's that working out for you?" He let his hand trail down my shoulder, my side, my hip, then used it to flip me around so I was facing him.

"Oh, little one," he breathed into my ear. "You didn't think it would be that easy, did you?"

I regained my senses and tried to change, but the process was painfully halted and I was forced back to humanity. Luke laughed.

"Mia, I'd like you to meet a friend of mine." Keeping a firm grip on the back of my neck and twisting one of my arms up painfully, he maneuvered me around so that I was able to watch a figure emerge from the shadows. Pale white, glowing red eyes, impossibly beautiful and graceful.

"Ah, Lucas," said the vampire in a voice that sounded like the finest symphony in creation. "You always did overestimate our relationship."

Luke snorted and gave my arm a vindictive twist. I winced. I was strong, so much stronger than I'd been the last time I'd seen him, but he had about a foot and probably one hundred pounds on me. In werewolf terms, he was easily twice my strength.

But was it going to stop me from fighting? Hell no.

I took a deep breath, said a quick prayer to whatever god dealt in werewolf/vampire affairs, and bulled my weight backwards as hard as I could. He'd been braced to keep me from going forward, so I threw him off balance. As soon as he'd stopped us and shifted his weight forward, I let my knees buckle and bent in half with everything I had. Although it nearly pulled my arm out of the socket and gave me whiplash, it worked; Luke went flying over my back and landed flat on his on the concrete. He stayed there, panting for air. I moved away quickly, wondering where the hell the others were, wondering how long I'd last against a werewolf and a vampire.

The sound of soft applause broke into my panicked curiosity. The vampire was looking at me with something between admiration, disgust, and interest. He walked towards me, taking care to step on and snap Luke's neck as he did. Luke screamed in pain. The vampire stopped, apparently annoyed. He sighed.

"I'm sorry, Mia, this will just take a second. I forgot how tedious killing a werewolf can be." He turned from me and walked back to Luke, writhing on the ground. "Now, Lucas, we had a deal. You were supposed to deliver her tamed. We do not tolerate failure."

I should have run. I should have screamed. I should have tried to stop him. I should have done something, anything. Instead I stood there, paralyzed, watching the vampire rip Luke into pieces and scatter them around. I knew the exact second when Luke died, the exact instant, because my entire being suddenly became extremely aware that the only other presence nearby was that of a vampire. My vision started shifting. When he turned back to me, he held Luke's heart in his hand. He sniffed at it, then threw it away, a look of utter repulsion on his otherwise perfect face.

"It's such a shame that the dogs have such overwhelmingly foul odors, don't you think? I am quite thirsty, but simply cannot bring myself to drink from…it."

"To tell the truth, I hadn't noticed."

He smiled. It was beautiful. "Of course not. Now, Mia, I haven't had the chance to properly introduce myself. I am Gregorio, the head of a…special unit of the Volturi guard."

"I'd figured something of the sort."

He took a few steps toward me, but my canine grace was succumbing to a more feline type of movement, one that mirrored his own, and I matched him, my backwards step for his every advance. He paused, and for an instant he was a flawless marble statue.

"I see now why the mongrel had such trouble with you," he said, his symphonies at work again. "You are quite inventive." He spoke slowly, with the confidence of knowing he had all the time he needed to word things exactly right.

"I adopt the traits of those around me," I explained. It was something I'd figured out during my week's rest. It explained the shifty vision when I was around the Cullens and the slow reactions around Emily. "I'm beginning to rather dislike you." Damn! Vampire-speak. I had to do better; I had to get a handle on this. "You know, the pack—soon. You'd leave, if you, I mean—crap." Okay, so fighting the language part didn't help. Sure, I didn't sound like a vampire, but sounding like I wasn't able to put together a coherent sentence wasn't going to get me anywhere, either. "The pack will arrive soon. You may be Gregorio, the head of a special unit of the Volturi guard, but I doubt that even you can stand against eleven-to-one odds."

"The pack is…occupied."

Panic. The pack. Jacob. I tried to phase and found myself, again, roughly thrown back to my human form. Gregorio had taken advantage of my distraction and moved much closer, almost within arm's reach, and sported a bored look.

"You'll hardly manage the transformation now. I possess the unique ability to force one to maintain one's current form, although I doubt I'm needed at the moment. You're much too close to the vampire side of things."

I hated to admit that it was true. Even though I was being forcibly kept in this body—although I assumed tall, light, and unruffled over there could let me go fully vampire if he wanted—my senses were losing their wolfish edge and switching to something else.

Gregorio took a deep breath, closed his eyes (I backed away a few steps), and exhaled, opening his eyes with a look of delight. "They will be here soon."

"I'm sure that'd be a lot more impressive if I had any idea what you were talking about."

"The Volturi. They are certainly most anxious to meet you."

Despite the cold knot of dread that was settling in my stomach (probably also due to my continued shift along the werewolf-vampire spectrum), I had a brief moment of hope. Alice was watching the Volturi's futures. If they were coming here, and as long as the pack stayed away, she'd know, and maybe, just maybe, someone would come help me.

In the meantime, all I had to do was stay alive—although that was a lot easier said than done.

"What do the Volturi want me for, anyway?" I asked, stalling. Every time I blinked, my vision changed. Vampire, werewolf, vampire, werewolf. It was making me nauseous.

Gregorio and I cocked our heads toward the approaching footsteps at the same time, but neither of us was willing to relinquish eye contact. One false step now that was all it would take. Eventually, one of us would make a mistake.

A barrage of scents hit me and I cursed under my breath. Vampires. Lots of vampires. I continued the staring contest with Gregorio as the door swung open behind me; Gregorio's eyes flicked over my shoulder. He straightened up and smiled. "Perfect timing, as always."

A voice laughed like a thousand choirs of angels. A thousand choirs of familiar angels. I froze, willing myself to be wrong. Several figures swept around the corners of my vision, which was still obnoxiously shifty, and settled behind Gregorio. Tall, beautiful, pale, red eyes, black robes: Volturi. Thinking the word brought a growl to my throat. A last figure floated around in front of me, this time standing next to Gregorio, who gave me a vomit-inducing wink and took a step back. I stared at the space he'd left, trying not to look at the vampire standing next to it. Tears were rising in my eyes, making it even harder to see.

"Harmony Waters Dawson," it said, that voice flowing over me in waves of nostalgia. "Fancy meeting you here."

I took a deep breath, stood up straight, and looked my older brother in the eye.


	15. Mark

**As always, undying love to my reviewers, and welcome to the party, iReadTwilight07. I'm glad you like it!  
Annemieke: I think it's kind of a shame that I killed Luke off, actually. He was interesting for a while. Hmmm....  
dancerox421: I love me some good twists. Don't worry, there are a few more in store :)**

**I'm going to be out of town/away from a computer for a few days, so I probably won't be able to update until Monday, but I'll give you two chapters then as a reward for your patience. **

**Almost forgot: I'm looking for character names for my next story--coming up with names is one of the things I'm worst at/waste the most time on. Hours and hours spent on . I can't stand it. Anyway, the point is, if you're got any brilliant ideas for a name, please let me know :)**

**  
**DISCLAIMER: I am not Stephenie Meyer. I do not own anything you recognize.

Chapter Fifteen: Mark

There wasn't really much I could do after that. I was pretty much incapacitated by Mark's reappearance, both because I thought he'd died two years earlier and because he was, quite clearly, a vampire. There were too many of them for me to fight on my own, so I went quietly. They blindfolded me, which I found morbidly amusing, seeing as I knew exactly what warehouse we were in thanks to the other wolfy senses, but I decided to keep that bit of information to myself. I was finding it relatively easy to stay on the wolf side of the spectrum—shock, I think, kept me from being too aware of the overwhelming number of vampires in close proximity. Mark was the only one I gave a crap about, at any rate.

They'd locked me into a solid concrete room to spend the night. There was a mirror along one wall, and I assumed they could see me from the other side, so I was careful to keep my actions and emotions in check. I sat cross-legged in the middle of the floor for a long time, replaying sounds and echoes I'd heard on the way in and trying to draw up a blueprint of the building in my head. I'd need to know all possible escape routes if any opportunities presented themselves. Sometime in the middle of the night, the pressure that Gregorio had been using to keep me in human form relented, so I pulled off my clothes—carefully keeping my back to the window and timing it exactly right—and phased. I waited anxiously for one of the pack to contact me, but there was nothing. Either everyone was human, or one of the vamps was blocking communication. Or I guess I could have been de-packed again, although I didn't see how. At any rate, being a wolf was reassuring, so I trotted to a corner, spun in a little circle, and settled down to sleep.

The door to my room opened and I was on my paws before I was even fully awake. A small female vampire stepped into the room, carrying a tray of food, which she set down by the door. Before she left, she turned to me and made eye contact.

Phasing had been painful. Involuntary transfer had been painful. Disobeying Luke's orders when he'd been my Alpha had been painful.

Being shredded into pieces by this shrimp of a vamp wasn't even on the same scale. I couldn't think. I couldn't move. I couldn't breathe. All I saw was red, red, red, and then it was gone, and she was gone, and the door was shut, and my heart wasn't beating properly.

The door opened again and she popped her head in. I cringed and looked away, but she just laughed. _Laughed._ "Don't be silly. I just wanted to see if it worked on you. Mark will be in to see you soon, so eat, phase back, and get dressed. Or we'll have to see if it works again."

The door thudded shut. I phased immediately and scrambled into my clothes, but I was pretty sure I'd puke if I even smelled the food too carefully, so I left that untouched by the door.

I was leaning against the back wall, combing tangles out of my hair with my fingers, when Mark came in. He shut the door and leaned against it, and for a long time the two of us just stood there in silence.

"It's good to see you," he said in a quiet voice.

"That's nice. Can't really say the same." I picked at a particularly difficult knot. I really needed to get my hair cut. I vaguely registered that my vision was back to wolf-normal, which was nice. Even having Mark here in the room wasn't pulling me along the spectrum. Maybe I was getting better at this.

"I didn't ask for this," he said. "It's not like they asked my permission. When they said that they were going to try to find you because I'd turned out so well, I asked them not to. I said that there was no guarantee that you'd be the same."

"Yeah, I'm sure you fought your vampire brothers really, really hard."

"Mia, it's not like that!" He was standing straight now, his hands balled into perfect porcelain fists at his sides. For the first time, I noticed that his eyes were the same golden shade as the Cullens'. "Are you _completely_ oblivious to what's going on here?"

I started shaking, but Gregorio's pressure was back. "What's going on here is that I'm a werewolf, you're a vampire—you're a Volturi, for the love of—I thought you'd _died_, and here you are with _them_—and them attacking my family! My family, the only family I have left because you were supposed to be dead and you're trying to kill them!" I was shouting by the end.

He looked at me. "Are you done?"

"For now."

Mark looked through the mirror. "I need to show her. I doubt she'll believe me on faith at this point."

I didn't hear a response, but the pressure let up. I went to phase straightaway, but Mark held up a hand. "Please, just wait. Please, Cricket?"

I froze. Cricket had been my dad's nickname for me. Mark took that as a yes, closed his eyes, and started morphing.

Color rushed to his skin, which was weird, but nothing compared to what was going on underneath. It was like his very skeletal structure was rearranging itself. His face contorted a little bit, there was a brief stuttering noise, and then a second heartbeat in the room joined my own. When he opened his eyes, they were brown, and he looked like he was seventeen again, how he'd looked before he'd hit his growth spurt. It was weird, like looking back through time.

I let every swear word I knew tumble out of my mouth.

"I know it's a little much," he said, cracking his back and flexing his fingers, "and it takes some getting used to. But that's not even the coolest part." He closed his eyes again and started to grow. He gained around a foot in height, developed huge muscles, and his hair grew. When he opened his eyes this time, they had the same wolfy edge mine did, and he looked like any other guy in the pack, the way he'd looked just before the accident.

I'm an _idiot_.

More swear words from me, more back cracking from him. He laughed at the look on my face. "But wait! That's not all," he said, sounding like a voice on an infomercial. He closed his eyes again, started shaking, and exploded out of his skin into a werewolf, roughly Jake's size, with fur the exact same shade as my own. He padded across the room to me on all fours and touched my nose with his. I could see myself reflected in his eyes. I looked like crap.

He took a few steps back, morphed into his normal human self (normal meaning not the human form of his werewolf self), pulled spare pants on while I stared at the ceiling, and looked at me nervously.

"What do you think?"

I slid down the wall and pressed my kneecaps into my eye sockets. "What are you?" I asked my knees.

"They're not entirely sure, actually. The Volturi, I mean. A hybrid of some sort, but these weren't the results they were expecting."

"They were expecting results? How did…I mean, what happened?"

"From what I understand, it's kind of like in vitro fertilization, but they took a werewolf—well, a shape-shifter, actually—they took a shape-shifter's, you know, sperm, and a female vampire's egg, and implanted them in our mom. I think."

"That's not possible," I said, still talking to my knees. "Vampires don't change, ever. The egg wouldn't change."

"Like I paid attention in biology. It's something about how the essence of a vampire is stasis, and essence of a shape-shifter is change, and so when you put them together with the essence of a human, which is…I forget what they said. Momentum? Something like that. Well, you put all three together and you get something entirely new, and that thing's essence is choice. Or variability, depending on which Volturi you're talking to."

I lifted my head. "Let's say I accept this. Let's say, that, hypothetically, what you're suggesting is possible, and that you're the first hybrid whatever. What's that got to do with me? Or the pack?"

He just looked at me. "You're kidding, right?"

"Would I joke about this?"

He looked thoughtful. "I don't know. You're different than I remember."

"That's what happens when your parents and older brother die when you're fourteen and you spend two years taking care of your younger brother and sister on your own before you find out that you're a werewolf and that your brother isn't actually dead, but just a yet undefined mutant."

He laughed. "I get why you're confused now. Mia, you're not a werewolf."

"Fine, shape-shifter, then."

"You're not one of those, either. You're one of me."

I stopped breathing. "Take that back."

"Sorry, but when I didn't pan out right away, the Volturi made you, too, so that they'd have a backup. When I didn't change, that's when they…you know."

"What?" My heart was pounding painfully in my ears.

"The accident, Mia. They wanted to know what had gone wrong, and to do that, they needed me. It had to look like an accident."

A brief hope flitted across my brain. "Mom and Dad?"

He looked down and shook his head. "I'm sorry. The Volturi didn't think it necessary to keep them around." His voice was bitter.

I swallowed hard. _You dealt with this a long time ago, Mia, _I told myself. _Now is not the time_. "What happened next?"

"They brought me here. Tried all kinds of different stimuli to get me to change, but nothing worked. They wouldn't try venom in case it killed me, but they were pretty creative. Finally, I heard them talking about having killed Mom and Dad for no good reason, and I got so pissed that I just…" His voice trailed off, and he made a little explosion motion with his hands. "Wolf. You know what that's like."

He shook his head a little, a movement I recognized. Trying to clear his brain. "The rest is history. They figured out that all I have to do is will myself to be whatever form I'm aiming for—it was hard for a while, but it gets easier. It stops taking so much effort. Vampire's been the easiest, but you've probably noticed that, that it's easier to be like whoever you're around."

Things were slowly clicking into place. As much as I didn't want to believe what I was hearing, enough of it made sense that I couldn't form a logical argument against the rest of it.

"So what's the point?" I asked, once I finally found my voice. "What's the master plan?"

"They won't tell me," he sighed. He closed his eyes and went vampire. "But right now, it's your turn."

"No way."

"Please, Cricket, or they'll send Jane back in. You know, short one, makes you feel like your soul is being torn apart?"

I took a deep breath. I could handle Jane, maybe, but it wasn't something I wanted to try if at all avoidable. Besides, if I tried this, maybe it wouldn't work. Maybe Mark was wrong, and I really was just a werewolf.

I stood up. "Fine. What do I do?"

Mark looked relived. "Good. Aim for vampire, because I'm here and everyone around is, too. Just think about what you know about them, and how you'd maybe look if you were one, and then…let go of yourself. Your identity. There's a space between the form you're in right now and the form you're trying to get to. You have to cross that space."

_Just like phasing_, I thought, remembering how Jake's instructions had sounded that first night. I closed my eyes and tried to picture myself with pale skin, cold skin, and no heartbeat. There was that strange feeling of being nowhere, and then my heart stopped.

I opened my eyes and the world looked completely different. _I _was completely different. My brain filed that away for later consideration while another part of it analyzed Mark's face while another part wanted to try out the new strength in my limbs while another part calculated the probability of me being able to jump off all four walls without hitting the ground.

I was thirsty.

I doubled over and retched at the thought, but another part of my brain informed me that it was perfectly normal. Things that had been slowly clicking into place before now locked in with lightning speed.

I looked up. Mark's eyes were narrowed. "Gregorio," he said quietly, and the pressure was immediately restored.

"What's that for?" I panted. I didn't need to breathe, but I needed air to speak, and my voice was beautiful! Also, there was a fault line running along one side of the room that I could probably break open if it came to that.

"That, my dear sister, is to keep you under control until we need you," he said. "You never could tell when someone was lying. I warned you about that."

"Mark? What's going on?"

"Shut up. We don't need you for a few days, so just sit here and wait until your sparkly new vampire brain figures it out!" He sang sarcastically. He left, slamming the door shut behind him. I stared, noticing every dent in the door that I'd never seen before, completely bewildered.

He'd lied to me?


	16. Kaley

**Welcome to the party, Mrs-Cullen-Duhh!  
crossedheart07: I considered getting my brilliant roommate's input on the hybrid thing--she'd probably actually be able to come up with the biological probability/improbability. When I mentioned that I was writing a story about werewolves, however, she looked at me like I was insane. Good times. **

DISLAIMER: I am not Stephenie Meyer. I do not own anything you recognize.

Chapter Sixteen: Kaley

I spent the next two days sitting in that room by myself, analyzing the conversation and the events of the past few months from every possible angle, trying to figure it out, getting hungrier—thirstier?—by the minute.

On the third day, the door opened and a figure was thrown into the room.

Human. Every sense I had recognized it. Human. Everything in me told me to drink her dry, and everything in me kept me pressed against the wall.

She was about my age and had a cut across her forehead that was bleeding pretty heavily.

I held my breath.

Her eyes focused on me and went wide with terror. She opened her mouth to beg for her life, but I held up a hand.

"Don't," I gasped, taking tiny little breaths through my mouth. "Don't speak. Go to the corner and sit down."

She scrambled to the corner opposite mine and sat, staring at me.

"Take your shirt off and press it against your forehead."

She didn't argue, but then she was wearing a tanktop under the shirt, so it was fine. As soon as the blood stopped flowing openly, I felt a little better. "Good. Now, just…stay. Don't move. Try to calm down. Your heart is beating so quickly right now that I can't ignore it."

She nodded, took a deep breath, and leaned her head against the wall. Her heart started slowing down to a normal rhythm, her breathing lengthened out…

"Hey! Don't go to sleep!" She snapped her head up as I continued yelling. "Are you an idiot? You probably have a concussion!"

"Oh, sorry," she whispered. Her eyes shot wide again. "Sorry, I didn't mean to—oh, damnit, sorry again."

"It's fine," I breathed, and suddenly, it was. Maybe this was one of the upsides of my essence being choice. "It's fine. What's your name?"

"Kaley Donahue."

"Kaley. I wish I could say it was nice to meet you, but given the circumstances…I'm Mia."

"Hi," she whispered. "What are you?"

"Currently, I'm a vampire. Two days ago, I was a werewolf. Two months ago, I was a high schooler." I sighed. "Sorry. That was melodramatic."

"Sounds like you're entitled." She paused, obviously wanting to ask me something.

"You can ask. I won't bite." _Poor choice of words_, I thought.

"Poor choice of words," she said. "I…I was with a bunch of other people. No one I knew, but other people who were in town. They said we were coming here for a survey or something. The…others, with the black robes, they killed everyone else…bit them. Vampires?"

I nodded, feeling queasy again.

"Shouldn't you be…you know…killing me?"

"Got a death wish?"

"No, it's just…shouldn't you?"

"Technically. Let's just say that I'm not your average vampire. As long as you stay over there and promise not to start bleeding, we should be okay."

She nodded. We sat in silence for a while…well, relative silence. Her heartbeat was still deafening. Taunting.

"What happens next?" She asked, her quiet voice ringing off the walls.

"I wish I knew."

We were in that room for a long time, at least three more days, maybe four or five. We didn't have a clock or windows, so we never knew what time it was. Members of the Volturi guard brought food in for Kaley on an unpredictable basis, so it wasn't like we knew that a day had passed every three meals. They took her out so she could pee, too. Me, I stayed in the room, getting weak. I couldn't stand up without passing out, and the burning in my throat occupied my thoughts every time there was silence, so I kept Kaley talking. We told stories about our families, our high schools, our friends, and the boys that drove us insane. We talked about current events. We drafted a plan to stop deforestation. We sang every song we both knew over and over and over. As soon as the cut on her forehead was thoroughly scabbed over, we didn't even need to sit in opposite corners of the room anymore. When she slept, I occupied myself by counting dust particles.

One day, the door opened, and Mark stood there, framed in the light. "It's time to go."

I struggled to stand up, getting about halfway up the wall before my legs gave out. "Where are we going?"

Mark grabbed my elbow and half dragged me to the door. "You'll see."

"Mia?" Kaley called from behind me. She sounded terrified.

"Oh, don't worry, darling," Mark said. "You're coming, too." A second vampire entered the room, tied a rope around Kaley's wrists, and pulled her to the door. I wanted to protest—like the rope was necessary; she was a human, after all.

Once outside, Mark pulled me onto his back and the vampire leading Kaley did the same for her. Vampires materialized out of the darkness around us as we began running. Even though I was used to the speed, it was severely overstimulating after so long in that room; I couldn't even imagine what it was like for Kaley. I hid my face in Mark's neck and tried not to think.

We stopped suddenly and I was catapulted to the ground, landing hard on my back. I managed to break Kaley's similar fall enough to keep her from getting seriously hurt, although I was sure she'd have bruises. If we lived through whatever came next.

Once the world stopped spinning, I got my bearings. The clearing. Of course. Mark and his vampires lined up behind Kaley and I. We sat arm in arm, staring into the dark woods on the opposite edge, waiting.


	17. Truths

DISCLAIMER: I am not Stephenie Meyer. I do not own anything you recognize.

Chapter Seventeen: Truths

We didn't wait long. We of the vampire inclination heard them long before Kaley, so I had plenty of time to warn her, in a very low voice, about what she was going to see. She did stare when the pack came through the trees, but to her credit, there was no screaming or anything of the sort. She looked at each wolf carefully, her eyes getting stuck on Seth. I was looking down the line, too, and no one looked happy to see me. Leah flat out snarled. I left Jake for last.

Hearing him growl at me broke my heart.

"So glad to see you could make it," Mark said, and from the tone of his voice, you'd actually believe me. "It makes everything so much more convenient for us."

I thought that one over. Convenient? What about this is convenient?

Sam phased. I covered Kaley's eyes, but she pushed them away impatiently. I could have kept them there, obviously, but maybe it would be better for her to know what she was getting into.

"Get off our land," Sam said, his voice darker than I'd ever heard it. "You are not welcome here."

"And what about this one?" Mark asked, kicking me in the back. If I'd had anything to eat or drink in the past week, I probably wouldn't have noticed, but as it was I cried out loudly and tipped over. Kaley was there immediately, holding my hand and brushing my hair away from my face. "She used to be one of you, didn't she?"

"This is the second time she's deserted us," Sam said, looking at me with utmost contempt. "She's not one of us anymore. She's not human anymore."

That hurt much worse than the kick. It wasn't fair. Luke wasn't my fault, and this wasn't either. I didn't seem to be the only one on that page: Seth whined and Jared gave Sam a sharp look.

Gregorio shoved Kaley away from me and Mark dragged me to my feet. He put one hand on my throat and the other dug cruelly into my hip, holding me in place. "We should show them what they're missing, shouldn't we?" He stage whispered in my ear. "Gregorio, please give my lovely little sister her freedom."

There were several looks of shock and unease on the pack's faces when Mark made the little sister comment. "Go to hell," I gasped as the pressure lifted.

"You'll be there long before I arrive," he remarked. "Human, if you please. And pre-phase human; we don't want you getting any ideas about your strength."

I stood still, refusing to play this game. Kaley gave a shriek of pain a few seconds later, and I saw Seth nearly leap out of line. Gregorio had Kaley's arm twisted behind her back and his lips were inches away from her jugular.

"I won't ask you again, Cricket. Human."

I seethed at the use of my nickname, but couldn't risk Kaley. I closed my eyes, reached for the nothingness, and imagined myself as I was months ago, just a plain human. My bones shifted, my heart started beating, and heat rushed to my skin.

The pack went nuts, Kaley screamed again, and my knees gave out. Mark hefted me back to my feet. "Very nicely done, Cricket. You're a natural."

"Fuck you."

His hand tightened around my neck and I was suddenly very, very aware of how fragile humans really were. Gregorio's pressure reappeared, locking me into this breakable body.

"Well, Cricket, your old pack now understands what we are capable of—creating a creature with all of their strengths and none of their weaknesses. We really only need one of them to make more of us, and I think I'll let you decide which of them gets to live."

Oh. It made sense now.

Extermination.

The Volturi couldn't control the pack, but they were a threat. They'd found a way to make themselves stronger while eliminating the others.

A ripple of unease moved through the pack. Sam phased back and took his place at the center of the line.

I was supposed to pick which one of them lived?

Mark sighed in my ear. "We're waiting, Cricket.

"Condition," I whispered. I couldn't get enough air to make any louder sound. "I want a condition."

"I suppose you want to go free after this?" He sneered.

I shook my head, fighting his cold grip. "No. Where would I have to go? I want you to let Kaley go. With whomever I pick."

"Kaley?"

"The girl," I said, pointing in Kaley's general direction. "I don't want you to hurt her."

Mark snorted. "Fine. Who cares about the human? Gregorio, let her go."

Kaley fell to the ground and ran to me. "Mia, don't, you don't have to do this, we can figure out something else."

"Seth," I called over her head. "Take Kaley and get out of here. Run as far as you can. Go."

Mark squeezed my hip angrily, breaking more than one bone. "I didn't say they got to leave."

But Seth, with the speed of a newly imprinted werewolf, had already darted forward, knocked Kaley onto his back, and taken off. Mark signaled two of his silent vampire companions to go after them, but I wasn't really worried. Seth was almost as fast as me, and even carrying Kaley, I was sure the vampires wouldn't catch up.

"Oh, that so disappointed me," Mark sighed. "And just when I thought you might be worth keeping around." He released me and I fell to the ground hard, landing on the broken side of my body. Mark stood there, smiling serenely at the line of wolves, then spoke the words I'd been dreading.

"Kill them all."

All hell broke loose. Within seconds, the clearing was full of shouting, cursing, blood, little bits of stone-like vampire, and bodies moving faster than my human eyes could follow. I tried to figure out who was winning, but it seemed to be a fairly dead heat, until Gregorio's pressure lifted. I managed the phase to wolf and breathed a huge sigh of relief when my hip starting fixing itself. I still couldn't hear anyone, though, and, standing there on three paws with bodies flying around me, I felt extremely alone.

Then I saw Mark fighting Jacob.

Mark seemed to be winning. He had the upper hand, at any rate, and Jacob was bleeding heaving from more than one wound. It seemed unreal that anyone could beat Jacob in a fight, but like Mark had said, all of the strengths, none of the weaknesses.

He had Jacob pinned. He was lowering his head…

_NO! _ I bellowed in my head. I threw myself across the clearing, bulling through wolves and vampires, ignoring the searing pain in my hip that was threatening to collapse me at any second. I leaped the last few meters, putting everything I had into it, feeling my hip give out as I left the ground. I rammed into Mark's side with my head, sending jarring spasms down my entire spine. I instantly couldn't move, so I couldn't do anything stop Mark from getting up, walking over to me, turning me onto my back, and lowering his head towards my neck.

I felt the contact, the pressure, and then nothing.


	18. Overheard

**This is what happens when no one reminds me that I'm responsible for things. So sorry for the delay--I've been trying to figure out how I want this to end so that it will tie in to the parallel. There's only one chapter after this (probably). Thanks for reading!**

DISCLAIMER: I am not Stephenie Meyer. I do not own anything you recognize.

Chapter Eighteen: Overheard

"Yeah, but are you _sure_, Alice?" Kaley.

"Of course not. But it's almost certain. She can probably hear us right now." Alice.

"Should someone go get Jacob?" Seth.

"Leah went after him a little bit ago." Emily.

"What if she doesn't want to see him?" Kaley.

"What if she doesn't want to see any of us?" Emmett.

"Then we'll have to accept that." Carlisle.

"She's the only friend I've got." Kaley.

"Hey!" Seth.

"You don't count." Kaley.

* * *

"Alice said she'd wake up yesterday." Kaley.

"It's worse than we thought." Carlisle.

"What if she doesn't wake up?" Kaley.

"We wait." Esme.

"We're back." Leah.

"She's not." Kaley. "Is Seth okay?"

"He's with Jake and Sam." Leah.

"What if she doesn't wake up?" Kaley.

"She will." Esme.

* * *

"What should I tell Abby and Bailey?" Emily.

"That she's sleeping." Edward.

"For three days?" Emily.

"Tell them that she's contagious." Kaley. "And they didn't get vaccinated like the rest of us did."

* * *

"Maybe we can make her wake up." Quil.

"Mia sleeplyheady!" Claire.

"What, dump her out of the bed?" Embry.

"It might help." Quil.

"It will not help." Kaley.

"Cold water?" Paul.

"Warm water?" Jared.

"Cymbals?" Collin.

"Out." Kaley.

* * *

"What if she doesn't wake up?" Bella.

"Alice said…" Edward.

"I know what Alice said." Bella. "And I know that she's been saying that for five days."

"She'll wake up, love. She will."

"It'll kill Jake if she doesn't."

"It'll kill me more." Kaley. "She saved my life. A few times. She saved my life every stupid minute in that stupid room."

* * *

"I don't know." Carlisle.

"It's been a week." Sam.

"And I still don't know."

"Her temperature's bouncing back and forth between 70 and 106. There's got to be something you can do."

"I've tried everything. I think she's the only one who can make it stop."

"What?"

"I think she has to make the choice regarding who, or what, she wants to be. She can't support the multiple versions of herself anymore."

"If she dies…"

"Then that's what she chose, and there's nothing we can do to change that."


	19. Home

DISCLAIMER: I am not Stephenie Meyer. I do not own anything you recognize.

Chapter Nineteen: Home

A hand touched mine. Warm, but nice. I squeezed at the fingers absently, and the owner of the fingers gave a gasp. "Mia? Mia? Are you—Carlisle! Sam! Edward! Someone!"

Lots of footsteps. The fingers stroked mine gently, then brushed across my forehead. "Mia? Can you hear me?"

I opened my eyes. "Not only can I hear you, Kaley, but I can smell you. When was the last time you took a shower?"

Kaley laughed through the tears in her eyes. "More recently than you."

"Ew."

"It's nice to have you back," Sam boomed. I cringed when I saw him and tried to get out of bed. "I'm sorry. I'm really sorry. I didn't mean to. I can leave. I'll leave right now." I tried to stand up, but numerous pairs of hands shoved me back into bed.

"Mia, you didn't do anything wrong," Sam said gently.

"But the stuff you said…what you said in the clearing?"

"Protecting the pack. I'm sorry that I had to say those things, but you have to know that I didn't mean them."

"Everyone was so mad," I whispered.

"We didn't know what to believe," Seth said. "We didn't know what had happened, and then you showed up all vampire-y—no offense, Edward, Carlisle—and that guy, your brother? It was a lot to take in."

"Mark!" I tried to sit upright and was once again forced back down. "What happened? Where is he? Is everyone ok? Oh my God, please tell me that everyone's ok!"

"Mark got away, with most of his…friends. The Volturi have assured us that they will not go unpunished. No one was hurt anywhere close to as badly as you were," Edward commented mildly. "Although Leah did try to kill us for not being back in time to help."

I laughed. It hurt. "Sounds like Leah."

"Mia," Carlisle interrupted. "How do you feel?"

"Alive. It's a good start."

"That's not exactly what I meant."

"Oh." I paused. "Oh. I see. Uh, well…" I wasn't furry, so I wasn't a wolf. I looked around the room, looking for dust particles. I couldn't see any more than a few inches from my face, so I wasn't a vampire. I tried to listen for people's heartbeats, but that wasn't working, either, so I wasn't just in human form.

"I think I'm...human?"

Wolves and vampires and humans exchanged looks. "And…how do you feel about that?" Carlisle asked carefully.

I thought about the question, honestly considering it. Being human meant no more pack connection, no more wolf senses, no more running faster than the eye could follow.

I smiled. "I feel like it'll be nice to have some down time."

Kaley and Seth grinned, Carlisle and Edward looked relieved, and Sam leaned against the door, which basically meant that he was thrilled.

The stairs were a hassle. Eventually, Seth just carried me down, despite my fervent protests. Everyone—wolves and vampires alike—were gathered in the living room. The pack and Emmett started cheering. Two smaller figures, Abby and Bailey, fought their way through the crowd and threw themselves into my arms. Tears sprang to my eyes yet again. God, I was such a girl.

Slowly, the hubbub in the room died down. I became aware that someone was standing in front of me, patiently waiting his turn behind Abby and Bailey. I gave my brother and sister a final squeeze and let them go, straightening up to look at Jacob.

He wasn't looking back.

"I'm glad you're okay," he mumbled.

"I'm sorry," I said, looking at the ground. He looked up, but I kept my eyes trained on the floor.

"For what?"

"Everything. Anything. Whatever you're mad at me about," I whispered, very aware of everyone watching.

"Mia, I'm not mad at you."

"Are you sure about that? Because I'm not sure if I can handle this again."

He put his hand under my chin and forced me to look at him.

My heart exploded out of my chest and Jake pulled it back together.

He smiled and the world lit up.

He kissed me and my heart exploded all over again.

I vaguely registered that people were cheering. Emmett whistled. Alice was dancing in circles. Bailey groaned and covered his eyes.

"Hey, imprint," Jake said in a husky voice, pulling back and kissing me on the forehead.

"Hi," I said, wrapping my arms around his chest and listening to his heart.

**So, that's the end of One of These Things...but the story doesn't end here! Coming up next is a parallel story detailing what the Cullens were up to while this was taking place, including what they were doing in Thailand and why they weren't back in time to help. **

**Thanks for reading! And huge huge HUGE thanks to everyone who reviewed. Honestly, every time I check my email and there's a little note from one of you, it makes my day (even when you point out my mistakes). **

**--quickfire4027**


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